In legal settings, the word “you” may mean a plural entity at all times, and not a singular entity at any time.
This may be because the courts want thou to be both a man and the representative of a corporation — two things, not one.
The courts have jurisdiction over the corporation, not the man, unless the man agrees to re-present the corporation.
Simply looking at the conjugation of the verb ‘to be’ shows something is not right. ‘You’ is paired with ‘are’, while ‘are’ is usually paired with the commonly plural pronouns such as ‘we are’, ‘(plural) you are’, and ‘they are’.
We should instead be saying ‘thou is’.
[update] Below I show the conjugation of ‘to be’ in French. There is in fact a different conjugation for ‘thou is’ and ‘you are’.je suis nous sommes
tu es vous êtes [ Different! ]
il/elle est ils/ells sont
The French language uses ‘tu es’ and ‘vous etes’. However, when addressing someone else in a formal manner, one is supposed to use ‘vous êtes’, which in all other cases means plural. The rule of using this is a formal setting actually means a legal setting. In court, in French-speaking areas, ignorant people answer to ‘vous etes’ and mistakenly establish joinder between the man and the corporation, because ‘vous etes’ always means plural, just like ‘you are’ always means plural.
In English class, we’re taught that the conjugations of “you” singular and “you” plural are the same, whereas in French and Spanish, they differ.
English
I am We are
You are You are [ Same! ]
He is They are
French
je suis nous sommes
tu es vous êtes [ Different! ]
il/elle est ils/ells sont
Spanish
yo soy nosotros somos
tú eres vosotros sois [ Different! ]
él/ella/usted es ellos/ellas/ustedes son
Same say that in court, when the magistrate says “you are,” we hear the singular version when in fact the magistrate is saying the plural form and means you, the man, and your person/corporation. The man and the corporation. Two persons/personas.
Listen to Karl Lentz talk claim the word ‘you’ is plural in this video.
Start at 9:25.
Other Thoughts
You might be a homonym for Yew, a tree. The fourth definition for ‘yew’ is the evergreen tree, of the genus Taxus, or its branches as a symbol of sorrow, death, or resurrection. Well this fits in with all the other death references, such as good mourning or ‘a wake’ and the fact that priests where black and the court issues a ‘summons’ to call up the dead.
Perhaps the word You is a lingual equivalent of the French verb Vous. You. Vous. You. Vous. They sound similar. They use so much Latin and French their courts; this would be another French word. The problem is the average man thinks its the singular You. The average man mistakenly agrees to be both himself and represent the person.
Some say you is a homonym for Ewe, a sheep.
Better than using “you,” would be to use “thou,” as is still done by some communities. The conjugation would be similar to the conjugation for He/She, such as “Thou is” like “He is.”
- Thou is wearing a nice sweater.
- What is thou’s name?
Notice that “thou” begins with “t” as does the French “Tu” and the Spanish “Tú.”
It’s a bit of a stretch, but notice that by removing the middle two letters, “ho,” from “thou,” it’s left as “Tu” (Thou).
Further Reading
- There’s also the missing ‘ye’ reference for second person plural. See discussion on Quora.
- A Quaker clarifies the topic on Yahoo! answers.
See Bill Turner’s Videos
Bill Turner brings up the use of ‘you’. There is even more to this topic.
- Review these slides
- Read this,
- review this diagram of US vs USofA,
- read these six PDFs,
- watch Richard McDonald's seminar intro
- learn to speak like a simple man
- If this site ever goes down, the archive is on the wayback machine.

If thou seekest to use archaic Modern English, shouldst thou not conjugate the verb properly? Should not thou more properly sayest, “Thou art”, versus “Thou is”? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou) 😉
More correctly: “Thou art wearing a nice sweater”. “What is thy name?”
The Modern English personal/singular “Thou” became archaic and faded from usage in the early 1700s. Modern English is GERMAN. It is directly descended from Platt Deutsch, a thousand years ago (The genealogy of Modern English can be seen at the beginning of the Webster’s Dictionary). We White Anglo-Saxon “Englishmen” were actually Germans two thousand years ago! (—Or at least the descendants of Germanic tribes, to include Saxons, Angles and Jutes.) “Anglo-Saxon” (or “Old English”) is a Germanic tongue, a language, not just some racial extraction, and language is one of the primary things used by archaeologists to trace the migrations of peoples. Platt Deutsch (or “Old Saxon”) is still spoken today in some small villages in Western Germany, and I actually had the pleasure of hearing it spoken (as I was semi-fluent in Modern High German, having lived there for a few years). The parallels to English are unmistakable. Modern German “Du” (pronounced like “do”), or “you” [Platt Deutsch and Frisian “Do” (pronounced like “doe”)], is the singular personal form of “you” best translated as “Thou”. German uses “Sie” and “Euch” as the formal and plural forms of “you”, thus making clear distinctions. —So yes, I believe you are absolutely correct that there are missing parts of our language, and it could very well be capitalized upon by those with the loftier educations in our society, against the better interests of the People, in the form of intentional miscommunications.