Y’all is a contraction of you all, a construction that English speakers in the US South have found useful for centuries. You is used by itself as a plural in this way all the time. When thinking about alternatives to you guys, the simplest solution is often to just drop the guys.
Here’s a simple alternative to saying guys or you guys: address people with their names. Here are some suggestions for replacing guys or avoiding its use. We’ve done our best to avoid clunky approximations that often miss the mark tone-wise or overstep familiarity (not all strangers like to be called friends, for example). But there are plenty of similar-and very simple and familiar-terms that can serve all the same functions with complete gender-neutrality. It can be hard to stop using language that comes so naturally, especially when it seems hard-coded into the way we communicate. There’s no doubt that the word guys is useful and, for many people, extremely frequently used. Applying the terms guys and you guys indiscriminately can end up excluding, ignoring, or creating discomfort for some people-particularly women and nonbinary people.įor these reasons, some people prefer to avoid using such terms, because they prefer not to be addressed in these ways or want to respect the preferences of those who don’t. The singular guy, for example, is never used to address or refer to an individual girl or woman. Is guys gender-neutral?įor years, the term guys and expressions like you guys have been commonly employed to address groups regardless of the gender of the group’s members, including by women addressing other women.ĭespite the long history of this kind of use, such terms nevertheless carry gendered origins and connotations. (Including some that we just used without y’all even noticing it). The answer is yes, and we have suggestions for each and every one of you. You may be asking if there are any good substitutes for such useful terms. Listen up, everyone: we know you all have questions, so let’s talk about the terms guys and you guys.
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