If your reaction to the phrase is even slightly frequent then I might want to address people in a more neutral way. Is “you guys” better or am I being sexist now? Is just “people” better? Suggestions? Maybe I should go all medical and drop pronouns altogether just to be sure :)
Since I’m not a native speaker my connotation-o-meter isn’t always amazingly tuned. The issue is amplified when I think and type quickly. Since you’re a native speaker I suppose your experience is more typical than mine, so I’ll avoid “you peopleing” in the future unless I want to be extra cheeky.
You might want to better take into account the amount of non-native speakers here next time you’re instinctively reading between the lines. Anyways I’m glad I learned something new about connotations again.
“You guys” has absolutely none of the hostile/contemptuous feeling that “you people” has (at least for me). It’s distinctly informal and (as you surmise) some people may interpret it as sexist.
I think I’d generally just say “you” and, if necessary, make it explicit what particular group I had in mind.
It hadn’t occurred to me that you might not be a native English speaker; sorry about that. I guess it’s one of the perils of speaking the language very well :-).
As another non-native speaker, I frequently find myself looking for a “plural you” in English, which was what I read hyporational’s phrase as trying to convey. Useful feedback not to use ‘you people’.
If your reaction to the phrase is even slightly frequent then I might want to address people in a more neutral way. Is “you guys” better or am I being sexist now? Is just “people” better? Suggestions? Maybe I should go all medical and drop pronouns altogether just to be sure :)
Since I’m not a native speaker my connotation-o-meter isn’t always amazingly tuned. The issue is amplified when I think and type quickly. Since you’re a native speaker I suppose your experience is more typical than mine, so I’ll avoid “you peopleing” in the future unless I want to be extra cheeky.
You might want to better take into account the amount of non-native speakers here next time you’re instinctively reading between the lines. Anyways I’m glad I learned something new about connotations again.
“You guys” has absolutely none of the hostile/contemptuous feeling that “you people” has (at least for me). It’s distinctly informal and (as you surmise) some people may interpret it as sexist.
I think I’d generally just say “you” and, if necessary, make it explicit what particular group I had in mind.
It hadn’t occurred to me that you might not be a native English speaker; sorry about that. I guess it’s one of the perils of speaking the language very well :-).
As another non-native speaker, I frequently find myself looking for a “plural you” in English, which was what I read hyporational’s phrase as trying to convey. Useful feedback not to use ‘you people’.