English usage and grammar

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A community to discuss and ask questions about English usage and grammar.

If your post refers to a specific English variant, please indicate it within square brackets (for instance [Canadian]).

Online resources:

Cambridge English Dictionary
Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus
Gilman's Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. This is a great and witty reference about usage, its history, and its controveries

Sibling communities:

!english_esl@lemmy.ml

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The usual ones on Lemmy and Mastodon.. In short: be kind or at least respectful, no offensive language, no harassment, no spam.

(Icon: entry "English" in the Oxford English Dictionary, 1933. Banner: page from Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale".)

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Why does the use of "you two" meaning you plural speaking to a couple, seem rude? (lemm.ee)

submitted 5 days ago by JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee to c/english@lemmy.ca

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“You all” or “you both” or “you”or “you guys” seems less icky, like they don’t view you as a couple saying “you two”, like you are up to no good.

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[–] echo@lemmings.world 11 points 5 days ago

Like most of English, it's very situational and not automatically rude. It's mostly rude when being declarative (with no authority) and/or dismissive.