What’s the Possessive of “Y’all”?

Hi, it’s another minicast from A Way with Words.

I’m Martha Barnette.

I have a question for you.

Do you use the word y’all?

I ask because recently we had a call from Haley in Fort Worth, Texas.

Haley said that she and her fellow Texans, of course, use the word y’all all the time.

But her question was, what is the correct possessive form of y’all?

Is it y’alls or y’allses?

What do y’all say?

Well, when it comes right down to it, that question turned out to be tougher for us than we ever imagined.

So I’ll go ahead and warn you that if I sound a little congested in this call, it was because I was getting over a cold.

And if I sound a little muddled, well, I’m just going to blame that on the congestion.

Anyway, here’s our conversation with Haley, followed by a little candid off-mic conversation with Grant and me.

I think y’all is a great word.

I use it all the time.

And I think y’alls is with apostrophe S is fine.

What do you think, Grant?

Wait, y’alls is?

Yeah.

Yeah, y’alls is.

With two S’s?

You have to move y’alls’ car because.

Wait, with two S’s?

No.

Well, my question was about just with one S.

Oh, wait.

But you said y’alls is.

Y apostrophe A-L-L apostrophe S.

That’s right.

Yeah.

Oh, y’alls car.

Yeah, and note that you got it.

You have to move y’alls car.

Everyone note that Haley got it exactly right.

The apostrophe goes after the Y, not after the A.

That’s true.

Yeah.

Everyone gets that.

Not everyone.

Lots of people get that wrong.

But it’s not y’alls is, Martha.

It’s y’alls.

All y’alls is.

Wait, are you spelling it Y apostrophe A-L-L apostrophe S apostrophe S?

I might be.

I guess I never thought about it.

There’s only one S there.

It’s y’alls.

And how do you do it, Haley?

Well, we’ll just say, like, y’alls house.

We’ll be going over to y’alls house tonight.

That’s totally fine.

It’s 100% fine.

It’s a standard way to form possession in English to add the apostrophe S on the end of a pronoun like that.

Okay, so would I say, are these my car keys or are they y’alls?

Zs.

No, no, it’s just y’alls.

I want to hear from your fellow Texans, Haley.

I believe we would all say y’alls.

Oh, okay, never mind.

Kentucky, what are you guys doing in Kentucky?

We put apostrophe S on everything.

Because they don’t talk like that in California, so you got that from home.

Yeah, I guess I did, or from my own fevered imagination.

Well, Haley, it sounds like we’ve made a complete mess out of your question.

Oh, another successful call on A Way with Words.

Well, thank you. I appreciate it.

Thanks for letting us talk this out, though, because really it’s not altogether clear.

And even if you go to the experts, Haley, and you check the style guides and the usage guides on this,

A lot of them don’t even have a word to say about it,

Which is a shame because we get this question often enough that I think you could write a book on it.

And ultimately, in my opinion, it comes down to what sounds right to you.

Because this is not a question of grammar.

It isn’t.

And don’t let anyone convince you.

It’s a question of style.

And style defaults to choice.

So, Grant, in other words.

Whether institutional choice or personal choice, but it’s about choice.

Sounds great.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks, Hayley.

Thanks for calling.

Okay.

Thanks, you guys.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Y’all.

Thanks, y’all.

Bye.

Thank you.

Bye.

The funny thing was, after Haley hung up, Grant and I just kept blabbing.

And it’s pretty amusing.

Have a listen.

She has immense patience with us, Martha.

She does.

Oh, my.

She must work in a preschool or something.

But it’s not clear, right?

It isn’t clear.

But the thing is, I always love puzzling this stuff out with you because I have these moments where I say to myself, wait a second.

I’m doubting myself.

Here is an intelligent, educated woman who disagrees with me.

Oh, my God, maybe I’ve been wrong this whole time.

But no, ultimately I go back and say, oh, well, it’s Martha.

Yeah, I was going to say I didn’t think Haley disagreed with you.

No, I think she’s got a good question.

The y’all stuff is really interesting.

I was making fun of your y’alls, but people do actually say that, y’alls.

Sure, sure.

Particularly because they start to use it rather than as a –

They start, there’s some question, and I don’t even want to get into this,

But some question is whether or not y’all can be plural or singular.

Oh, absolutely. Yes.

Some people who think it’s singular might make it plural by adding an S

And then add the apostrophe S to make it possessive.

C’est moi, Grant.

Yes, and then you do get y’alls is.

Absolutely.

However, that’s completely predicated on anyone at all in the whole universe

Believing that y’all can be singular.

Y’all can be singular.

Okay, Texans, call us.

Y’all can definitely be singular.

Absolutely.

How y’all doing?

Absolutely.

No, no.

When you say that, it’s not singular.

You’re saying, how are you and yours doing?

No.

How are you and all your people doing?

No.

That’s what you’re implying with y’all.

No, no, no.

I would like to hear from people.

So y’all call us 1-877-929-9673 and tell my co-host he’s wrong.

We better add some more phone lines because they’re going to blow up.

Okay.

All y’all who use y’all, you know who y’all are, call or email us and let us know the answers to these two questions.

What do you use as the possessive of y’all?

And do you ever use the word y’all as a singular?

Come on, I know you do.

Don’t you?

Sometimes?

Maybe?

Let us know.

1-877-929-9673.

Or send all y’all’s emails to words@waywordradio.org.

Thanks for listening.

I’m Martha Barnette.

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