When you write for an audience, you need to consider who they are, where they’re from and what they want out of your article. These are the 5 W’s of journalism, and they can help you format an article that will be the most beneficial to your readers. However, you may not be as familiar with the audience as you think. Asking the right questions about your audience can make you more aware of how your use of certain words can change their meaning. This is especially true when it comes to the use of the words you and yours.
You is a second person singular pronoun used to address a single individual in a conversation or when a noun or phrase is referring to that individual. In addition to its use as a singular pronoun, you can also be a plural pronoun, taking the form of yours (your, yourselves, y’all). Its usage as a plural is often triggered by verb forms that would normally signal agreement as a third person pronoun (e.g., I sent it to you).
Historically, English had a distinction between a singular and plural second-person pronoun similar to that found in many other languages, including the Dutch jij/je, jou, and yu; Low German jo/ju, ju, yü; and the archaic Swedish ye. The King James Version of the Bible retained this distinction, using thou, thee, and thine for the singular, and ye and yous for the plural. However, the modern thou has been gradually replaced by you in most contexts.
Plural forms of the pronoun you can be a source of confusion, as they tend to look similar and sound alike. The most common example is the South Midland and Southern American expression y’all, which can be pronounced as either a monosyllable or two-syllable word and is usually written as ya’ll or y’all. This word is often confused with the grammatically identical you guys, but y’all refers to a group of people without reference to their gender, while you guys can be specific and refer to male or female individuals.
The word you is also sometimes confused with its possessive adjective, your. The difference between these two terms is important to know because your and you’re are homophones, or words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. In addition, you’re is a contraction of the two words you are, and spelling errors in this type of word are more likely to occur when using a computer program to check spelling.
To help you avoid these errors, here are a few tips for correctly distinguishing between your and you’re. Remember that your is a possessive adjective and you’re is a contraction of the words you are. When in doubt, it is best to avoid using a contraction and stick with the traditional spelling of the word you are. This will prevent any confusion over the difference between your and you’re.