Monsieur le Evaporation stopped by the casa this afternoon, on his way over to Carol's house. The hub and spawn were off at some fair at my mother in law's church, leaving me and El Steve home alone.
While we could have opted for an afternoon of hot, steamy, extramarital sex, we took it in a different direction. We chatted. For a nice long time.
Though I've known Steve for about six years now, I'm going to have to figure this as the first time our respective spouses have trusted us to be alone together. Silly them. But I digress.
We talked of many things. We laughed. We cried.
But at one point in the conversation I was referring to the global you. You know....the more than one you. The you meaning everyone. And I was once again slapped in the face with the fact that English does not have a word for this concept. Texans do: all y'all. (Cuz you know that old joke, what's the plural of y'all? All y'all.) But I'm not a y'all kinda girl.
So instead of saying all y'all I said ustedes. And Mr. Amaya, being the fine Mexican that he is, completely grasped my concept.
(For those of you non-Spanish speakers, ustedes is the plural you--basically all y'all.)
English really needs a proper word for this concept. Submissions being accepted.
Posted by beth at October 11, 2004 12:10 AMBeth, darling, I'm wracking my brain here, the day after our sweet time together, trying to figure out just what "extramatrial" sex is. If it's what it sounds like, I'm glad it didn't happen.
Posted by: Mr. Amaya at October 11, 2004 01:49 PMI do not think it means what you think it means. I will now be fixing it though. Dang, wish I had spellchecked.
Posted by: beth at October 11, 2004 01:59 PMWhatever it is, I'm sure it wouldn't last nearly as long as the "chatting" you enjoyed.
Posted by: Chuck at October 11, 2004 02:35 PMI can't help it, Chuck. I've been blessed with a well-endowed vocabulary.
Posted by: Mr. Amaya at October 11, 2004 02:43 PMJust leave my wife's vernacular out of it.
Posted by: Chuck at October 11, 2004 04:04 PMOoh, boys, I love it when y'all whip out your impressive lexicon.
(Sorry, Beth, all I can come up with is "y'all". Unfortunately, people make fun of me when I use that word because nothing else about my mish-mash of an accent is southern, despite living in both Virginia and Florida.)
Posted by: Carol at October 11, 2004 06:19 PMI like the way the brits say it: "You lot..." or sometimes "the lot of you...".
Posted by: David at October 12, 2004 12:54 AMI believe that in English we use a phrase in stead of a word, "all of you". Leave it to the English language to take the difficult route.
And my my, gentleman. So interesting to see you get so riled up over a lady's choice of words.
Posted by: Square1 at October 12, 2004 10:07 AMHmmmm. The plural of you..... If I remember correctly, the movie "My Cousin Vinnie" solved THAT particular nut with "yous" – to quote my hubby, "I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'…"
HA!
Posted by: zahava at October 14, 2004 02:04 PMHa! Thanks Zahava.
As I was born and rasied in Brooklyn and educated courtesy of the New York Public School System, I am more than familiar with yous(e?) and youse guys (which begs the question is a double plural a singular, like a double negative is a positive?). But, like ya'll and all ya'll, I'm just not that kinda girl (anymore). But I should not have been so quick to forget my roots.
Posted by: beth at October 14, 2004 02:29 PMAs I understand it, y'all is, so to speak, a small plural--several--and all y'all is global.
This is a good new usage and needed be confined to the South.
I was astonished, arriving in Ireland, to have my small group of travellers addressed as "youse".
I got used to it, and it too is a handy locutioin.
Posted by: Liz Ditz at October 17, 2004 02:48 PMYou'ens in Western Pennsylvania have a word for it. I just can't remember it.
Posted by: Mr. Amaya at October 22, 2004 11:59 AM