yous

1. 1
   people spoken topronoundialectalplural

   A dialectal form of "you", used to address one or more people directly.

   Yous should grab your coats before we head out.

   Did yous see what happened at the game last night?

   UsageMostly in speech and quoted dialogue; standard writing uses you.

   Similaryou, y'all

   Note

   Built the plainest way English builds plurals: you plus the ordinary -s ending. The result gives speakers a form that usually points at more than one person, which standard you cannot do on its own, though some speakers also use it to one person. What are yous up to tonight? is a question put to a group. It belongs to dialect speech, so it sits naturally in dialogue and quoted talk, while standard writing keeps plain you.

2. 2
   multiple selvesnoun

   Plural of you: different versions, sides, or selves of one person, counted as if they were separate people.

   The self-help book claims everyone has three yous: the public one, the private one, and the hidden one.

   In the time-travel movie, two yous from different decades meet and argue over breakfast.

   Note

   Here you has become a noun for a version of oneself, and yous counts those versions. Patrick M. Morley's The Man in the Mirror speaks of "two yous," the visible you and the real you, and Robert Dubin (1992) of "the several yous." It is built like the dialect pronoun, you plus plural -s, but does a different job.

3. 3
   with group worddeterminerdialectal

   Used before a noun to specify the group of people being addressed in speech or writing.

   Yous fellas left the gate open again.

   Are yous boys ready to go?

   UsageBefore a plural noun, the way we works in we kids: yous kids, yous fellas.

   Similaryou

   Note

   Geoffrey Hope Gibson's 2015 novel Matriarch uses it in banter with children, "yous kids want a game?", and a line later lets it stand alone, "Dar and I versus yous." That slide shows how freely the determiner trades places with the plural pronoun. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Geoffrey Hope Gibson wrote the novel Matriarch. lhpress.com
   • The novel contains the question 'yous kids want a game?'. en.wiktionary.org
   • A later line uses yous without a following noun in 'Dar and I versus yous'. en.wiktionary.org

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