“There is no plural you in English” is a phrase that has been repeated by teachers and students of English the world over. It is embedded in our textbooks and in our minds, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. This is a product of the classist and racist construction of “standard English” which is replicated and reinforced primarily in academic environments. Though we were all subjected to notions of “standard” or “correct” language in some manner or fashion, it is important to note that the features that have been collected and collated as “standard English” constitute a narrow and incomplete distillation of the English language. For example when we are taught that double negation is incorrect and that phrase like “he never doesn’t come on time” is non-standard, this does not mean that people suddenly stop using this construct.

It terms of the plural “you” pronoun, it is true that “proper” and “standard” English has no distinct plural form, but the English language has many plural pronouns and has for centuries. There are many plural second person pronouns in use across the Anglosphere, such as “yous”, “yuns”, “y’all”, “you lot”, “you guys” and “ye”. Textbooks will show that the second person pronoun “you” is both singular and plural and that there is no distinct plural form. This has become a fundamental principle of English grammar, reinforced across legions of resources as correct and “standard”, with forms like “youse” being rarely if ever included, despite wide usage in every day speech.

Concepts of “standard English” tend to be taught in assimilationist practices, where students are required to change how they speak to reflect a more correct or proper style. This is an ineffective approach to language teaching that leaves out much of the richness of variety, register, and form in favor of respectability politics. It is also a product of systemic linguicism: the colonialist notion of linguistic superiority, where the dominant culture’s language is held up as the gold standard, while other varieties are seen as inferior or even barbarous. By relegating “non-standard” forms such as “y’all” and “you guys” to the status of mere colloquialisms, we create artificial levels of correctness and establish a hierarchy of language use that reinforces existing linguistic and sociocultural biases.

Language is inextricably linked to its speakers, and cannot be abstracted or divorced from them. It is not a disembodied concept, frozen in time or existing solely on the page. Rather, it is a living entity that evolves with its speakers, every one of whom is valid and valuable. A critical step in the decolonization of language learning is to acknowledge and address the ways in which linguistic prejudice and prescriptivism exclude and marginalize how people speak. This includes recognizing the impact of colonialism on perceptions of language and acknowleding the subtle biases that creep into language teaching materials. By doing so, we can work towards a fairer approach to language learning, one that values diversity and recognizes the agency and authority of all speakers. Students are far better served with the knowledge that “standardised” English is just one variety but that the same language also contains the framework of “you” “y’all” and “all y’all”.

The notion that there is no plural second person pronoun in the English language is widely repeated, often in comparison to other languages, such as French and Spanish. However this comparison is itself a part of the colonial view of valued cultures. Speakers of English will praise the utility of a plural you form in Spanish and decry the lack of one in English, while people around them say things like “are youse alright?”. The conflation of “standard” and “correct” and “proper” language contributes to many hierarchical perceptions of language and culture, including a misapprehension of what “standard English” actually is : a formal variant of the language used predominantly in writing.

For centuries, Standard English has been promoted as the superior form of English, with other ways of speaking -deemed “regional” and “non-standard” -becoming marginalized or stigmatized. The focus on Standard English has led to the exclusion of other forms of language from mainstream language instruction. Plural forms like “y’all” and “youse guys” are not merely quaint regionalisms or informal colloquialisms, but rather integral parts of speech that are used in everyday conversation by people from all walks of life. These forms convey subtle shades of meaning and are an essential aspect of how people communicate. They are not merely quirky ways of speaking that people use when they are speaking “regionally” or “improperly”.