A little southern-style grammar for y’all this morning:
“Y’all,” being authentically Southern, does things differently. It adds an apostrophe and “s,” as though “y’all” were a noun. So the proper possessive of “y’all” is “Y’all’s.” The first apostrophe signals the omission of the letters “o” and “u” in “you all.” The second signals the possessive case.
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#1 by Anonymous on December 20, 2006 - 10:28 pm
I’m not sure I see the problem. Would you prefer “y’alls” with no apotrophe? Both apostrophes seem to me to be used correctly.
#2 by Chris on December 27, 2006 - 4:39 pm
Oh, I agree they are used correctly. I just love that there is the need for a possessive “y’all’s”.
#3 by Vance on January 18, 2007 - 11:21 pm
That’s better than the midwesterner’s word for 2nd-person plural possessive. “You guys’s” Really rolls off the toungue, doesn’t it?
#4 by Miss Cellania on January 19, 2007 - 2:05 pm
Makes perfect sense to me. A group of people can possess something. What grinds me up is when an outsider uses y’all’s (or y’alls) as a plural.
#5 by Scott on January 19, 2007 - 7:32 pm
Now hold on a minute, miss cellania… y’all is NOT plural, it is singular. The plural of y’all is all y’all.
–sdc
#6 by arkansawyer on March 14, 2007 - 6:29 pm
It’s a wonderful word and trumps “you guys” hands down. My wife is a Yankee, but she adapted to “y’all” and our other great invention, “fixin’ to”, very quickly and now couldn’t manage without them.
The plural can be either “y’all” or “all of y’all” with the “o(f)” barely voiced and sounding as if it were “all y’all”. The possessive would be “y’all’s”.
My pet peeve is the common practice, both in the South and elsewhere, to spell it as “ya’ll”. I grind my teeth and clench my fists whenever I see that.
#7 by Chris on March 14, 2007 - 6:32 pm
I love “fixin’ to…” (I grew up in Texas), but don’t encounter it much in Seattle.
#8 by Anonymous on March 24, 2007 - 8:26 pm
“Ya’ll” is actually correct. It is based on the use of “ya” instead of you, therefore the apostrophe is representing the omitted “a” in “all”
“Y’all” is used if you are meaning to leave out the “ou” in “you.”
Most Southerners us “ya” instead of “you,” making “ya’ll” perfectly acceptable.
#9 by Anonymous on May 17, 2007 - 11:05 pm
Thank you, Scott for understanding how to make “y’all” plural. My mother would be proud.
#10 by Erudite Redneck on May 22, 2007 - 6:44 pm
I like the plural possessive of y’all, myself:
“Y’alls’es”
#11 by Anonymous on May 25, 2007 - 8:15 pm
y’all’r crazy LOL
#12 by Anonymous on June 1, 2007 - 2:42 am
I was going to write something negative about all of the comments, but I decided, “hey, there’s enough hate in the world.”
#13 by wen on June 1, 2007 - 6:35 pm
nah it ain’t. it’s “all y’all”
#14 by ignatov on June 5, 2007 - 2:19 pm
Y’all is already plural, short for “you all”. To use y’all when addressing a single person is incorrect.
“All y’all” is widely used, but redundant.
“Y’all guys” is popular in Oklahoma, even when addressing women.
#15 by Anonymous on June 8, 2007 - 11:10 pm
OK, I can’t believe no one has said this. Y’alls should NOT contain a second apostrophe, just as “yours” and “hers” does not. It’s a PRONOUN.
#16 by Katy on June 11, 2007 - 3:45 am
Being from the south…I just now realized that I use “y’all’s” all the time. Thank you. Thank you apostrophe abuse for opening my eyes.
#17 by Dan on June 20, 2008 - 2:01 pm
What about good old “youse” – I must admit, I’m a bit of a bogan and I use “youse”.