you
/ju/
"you" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“you” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #11) as a pronoun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #11
- frequency rank, English
- 366
- “Y” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - The people spoken, or written to, as an object.
Corpus desk
Index EN-you · you · English
you · rank #11 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #11
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 366
- PHOTO-FINISH that
Nearest frequency peer: that (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “you”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- is
is
99,993 corpus weight
- for
for
99,992 corpus weight
- that
that
99,991 corpus weight
- you
you
99,990 corpus weight
- it
it
99,989 corpus weight
- on
on
99,988 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “you” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | you |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| IPA | /ju/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “you” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for you is neighbouring look-alikes ("yu", "yr", …), not just typos; it is apronoun pronounced /ju/. Frequency #11 among 366 “Y” headwords. 8 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for you, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "yu", "yr", "yt", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English you, yow, ȝow (object case of ye), from Old English ēow (“you”, dative case of ġē), from Proto-West Germanic *iwwi (“you”, dative case of *jiʀ), from Proto-Germanic *iwwiz (“you”, dative case of *jīz), the Western form of Proto-Germanic … The correct English form is you, spelled Y-O-U.
Definition
- 1The people spoken, or written to, as an object.
- 2(To) yourselves, (to) yourself.
- 3The person spoken to or written to, as an object. (Replacing thee; originally as a mark of respect.)
- 4The people spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Replacing ye.)
- 5The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.)
- 6A person's favorite sports team.
- 7Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals (as subject or object).
- 8A dummy pronoun used in certain constructions, usually with verbs of receiving (such as get or find) or sensing (such as see or hear), typically stating the existence or typicality of something.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how you appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Both of you should get ready now.
And Ioſeph ſaid vnto them, That is it that I ſpake vnto you, ſaying, Ye are ſpies.
Etymology
From Middle English you, yow, ȝow (object case of ye), from Old English ēow (“you”, dative case of ġē), from Proto-West Germanic *iwwi (“you”, dative case of *jiʀ), from Proto-Germanic *iwwiz (“you”, dative case of *jīz), the Western form of Proto-Germanic *izwiz (“you”, dative case of *jūz), from Proto-Indo-European *yúHs (“you”, plural). Cognate with Scots you (“you”), Saterland Frisian jou (“you”), West Frisian jo (“you”), Low German jo, joe and oe (“you”), Dutch jou and u (“you”), German euch (“you”), Middle High German eu, iu (“you”, object pronoun), Latin vōs (“you”), Avestan 𐬬𐬋 (vō, “you”), Ashkun yë̃ (“you”), Kamkata-viri šo (“you”), Sanskrit यूयम् (yūyám, “you”). See usage notes. Ye, you and your are cognate with Dutch jij/je, jou, jouw; Low German ji, jo/ju, jug and German ihr, euch and euer respectively. Ye is also cognate with Danish I and archaic Swedish I.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "you"?
What does "you" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "you"?
How do you pronounce "you"?
What is the origin of the word "you"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "you", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.