Q: As a native New Yorker of Italian-American descent, I have always been plagued by the term “yous.” I stopped using it many years ago during my freshman year at college when a dorm mate from Beacon Hill grabbed me by both shoulders and shook me vigorously while proclaiming, “ ‘Yous’ is not a word, God-dammit!” Alice Park-Davies is very funny as Billie’s sulky friend Rachel, and while it’s hard to believe that she is the daughter of a university lecturer and a documentary filmmaker, Park-Davies’s facial impressions and sullen silences perfectly capture those difficult teenage years. Billie’s boyfriend Fudge is played by Beko Wood in a solid performance, but perhaps we see too little evidence of his sudden change of heart. Like Clare McIntyre’s Low Level Panic, Yous Two is set entirely in a bathroom, although this one has a manky carpet, a faint smell of piss and is in need of really good coat of paint. It belongs to Jonny, the tenant and 36-year-old single parent of his 15-year-old daughter Billie, whose mum committed suicide soon after her birth. In the bathroom, Billie chats to her dad, and entertains her school friends Rachel and Fudge. She is a lively, intelligent teen who gets great grades for maths and science, and has ambitions to go to a better school, as well as to uni. But when she gets unexpectantly pregnant, her future is suddenly put in doubt. Ali Barouti, Leah Harvey, Shannon Tarbet and Joseph Thompson will star in Georgia Christou's debut play Yous Two, directed by Chelsea Walker and playing Downstairs 18 January - 24 February.

This one is found all over the English-speaking world, from Ireland to South Africa, to New Zealand, to New Jersey. It makes a lot of sense. How do you make something plural? Add an 's'! 7. YeWhat’s particularly impressive is the playwright’s attention to the detail of the exchanges between parent and child, how Billie deliberately provokes Jonny by using explicit descriptions of a friend’s underwear, while her dad wearily replies, “Behave.” And then there’s an exact sensitivity to class: one of Billie’s classmates “gets thrush cream from her mum”, who “makes documentaries for Channel 4 so she’s probably quite used to stuff like that”. The mixture of a teen’s growing perception of class and social relations with a daughter’s negotiations with her parent is exactly conveyed. Likewise, I appreciated the combination of directness and tenderness. Lovely writing. I therefore think that “yous” is almost a kind of creole for Italian-Americans rather than a sign that we have a strong aptitude for being a loan shark. Does this theory make sense or is my wife correct when she tells me I have much too much time on my hands? We can see that this might be a natural response on the part of immigrants (and not just Italians) whose first languages had both singular and plural forms.

What is modern-day parenthood? Is there a difference between caring for someone and caring about them? These are complex questions, they ripple through Yous Two, a tightly knit full-length debut from writer Georgia Christou. According to this usage note yous/youse is used in informal speech especially the northeast of the United States. The usage appear to have been common especially among immigrant communities whose first language had both the singular and the plural forms: So nothing's really changed, then? Well, I Right, for old time's sake, right, hit us with both barrels.

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The Debate, whether Religion was of uſe to Society.---A worthy member on this occaſion got up, and ſpoke thus. Would that satisfy you? What pin? Where? You see that sideboard over there, Winston? Yes, of course. Youse (you + the plural -s ending of nouns), probably of Irish-American origin, is most common in the North, especially in urban centers like Boston, New York, and Chicago. It is rare in educated speech. You guys is a common informal expression among younger speakers; it can include persons of both sexes or even a group of women only. See also me. Sometimes a plural is simply not plural enough. That's when it's time to pull out "yees,""all y'all," and "youse guys." What? Can I go to the toilet? Away, you wee fanny! Boabby? I don't need the toilet! Where do you keep the scampi fries? Oh, in that box above the chest freezer, Mark.

A moving portrayal of what happens when those you should depend on need you more than you need them. Winner of the RTST Director Award 2017, Chelsea Walker’s theatre credits include Low Level Panic (Orange Tree Theatre), P’yonyang (Finborough Theatre) and Klippies (Southwark Playhouse). You guys as increasingly found in General American as a generic second person plural. The fact that people use it even for a mixed gender or all female group implies a certain level of grammaticalisation of the form. Georgia Christou’s debut play is a moving portrayal of the conflict between personal aspiration and familial responsibility, and what happens when those you should depend on need you more than you need them.How? Well, there's nothing the matter with Tam's eyesight, is there? BOTH: Bastard! He's making it. I'm saying you're a nay-user junkie! What? I'm a You're a bastarding junkie! I'm junkie? How am I a junkie? Junkie with what? Biscuits, wine gums, Mint Imperials. I love the Downstairs space – I first discovered it when I was studying at Central. It’s like a little world in itself – and it properly transforms for each play. It fits Yous Two like a glove. I’ve accepted this but, in the interest of regaining some dignity, I do have a theory about its origins. New York is a city of immigrants who, like my grandparents, may have learned the English language but may have also retained some of the grammar of the home country. In English we express the plural of “you” with “you two” or “you three” or, in Katie Couric’s case, “you all.” But in Latin languages it is expressed with one word that, literally translated would be “yous” (for example: vous in French or vosotros in Spanish).