1. thearchitect

    thearchitect Member

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    Grammar 'You' or 'Ye'?

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by thearchitect, Jul 3, 2014.

    It's a phrase I'm sure you all use a lot... or is it a phrase ye all use a lot? Is the word 'ye' a very Irish one?
     
  2. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    Are you asking whether one should use "you" or "ye" in writing? If so, stick to "you" unless it's dialogue and the character uses "ye."
     
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  3. thearchitect

    thearchitect Member

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    Yeah sorry, meant for writing, thank you for that
     
  4. stevesh

    stevesh Banned Contributor

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    I've never seen it, so it must be Irish-specific.
     
  5. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Ye is the archaic subject pronoun for you.

    I - me
    thou - thee
    we - us
    ye - you
    they - them

    When the informal thou dropped out of use, the subject pronoun version of you was also lost and the object pronoun was retained and serves as both subject and object pronoun. If you use ye in dialogue, it should only be used as the subject of a sentence, never the object.

    There are areas of Ireland where it is still in common use, even though thou is still absent. In those areas you is the singular and ye is the plural for the subject pronoun and you remains the object pronoun for both grammatical people.
     
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