vous autres
French
Alternative forms
- vous-autres (especially Louisiana)
Etymology
See vous and autre. Compare Asturian vosotros, Catalan vosaltres, Galician vosoutros, Italian voialtri, Occitan vosautres, Spanish vosotros, all of identical meanings. Compare also French nous autres (“we”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /vu.z‿otʁ/
- (Louisiana) IPA(key): [vu.zɔt]
Pronoun
Usage notes
In Louisiana French and Quebec French, where the use of vous is generally very restricted, this is the usual form of the second-person plural pronoun.
In Louisiana, despite being always plural in meaning, vous-autres is used with third-person singular forms of the verb to form statements and questions:
- Vous-autres est trop de bonne heure. ― Y'all are too early.
- Vous-autres veut boire du pop ou quèque chose? ― Do y'all want to drink some pop or something?
In commands, the verb takes the same endings as for vous and the reflexive pronoun is vous-autres:
- Coupez vous-autres pas! ― Don't cut yourselves!
Otherwise (with singular verbs), the reflexive pronoun se is used:
- Vous-autres se rappelle de ça? ― Do y'all remember that?
Descendants
Further reading
- Dictionary of Louisiana French: As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities (2009; →ISBN; →ISBN)