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| Ocotober 24, 2002 Why?  I would like to know why we say, "Kamran you ARE a good man" instead of "Kamran you IS a good man." Or we say, "Shabnam, you ARE late" and not "Shabnam, you IS late." Why is that? Some of your replies: * Zara Houshmand: Because "you" is actually the second person plural form, similar to "vous" in French or "shoma" in Farsi. "Thou" is the singular (and you would say "thou art", not "thou is"--"is" is only for 3rd person) At some point, the second person plural came to be used as a polite form for the second person singular, and "thou" was used only for informal or intimate situations. For comparison, notice how you use "shoma" instead of "to" in informal situations if you are talking to more than one person. Later the singular form "thou" gradually started to drop out of use in English, except for rare exceptions like talking to God. (I think that's because of the intimacy of prayer, certainly no disrespect involved.) "Thou" stayed in common use much longer in certain groups, like Quakers, who used it even in polite situations to indicate the equality of all men in the eyes of God, because "you" was seen as distinguishing between different classes. I have a similar question about Farsi -- why do people sometimes use "-eem"--the plural form, instead of "-am" when they are talking in the first person about themself only? Does it signify politeness? humility? not just "me", but "people like me?" * Roshan Houshmand: I am; You are; He, She, It is; We are; You are; They Are; In English, there is no difference between "YOU" in the plural. So, as a result, when we say "YOU ARE", we could be referring to the YOU in the plural or the singular. "I am" and "He, She, It is" are the only changes of the verb to be...all other forms, such as " You, We, They " are potentially in the plural, so we use "ARE". "You are", even in the singular form, also denotes a sign of respect, as well as plurality. In Farsi we have "Shoma", we also have "TO". "SHOMA" is used as either the plural form of "TO", or as the formal form of "TO". In Spanish we have "usted" for the formal of "TO", however it is in the form of EL and ELLA, as in the 3d person singular. So, in Spanish when we speak to someone of rank, we actually use "USTED" (with the verb form of es, as in he, she , it), in order to not speak directly to someone of respect. In English as in Farsi, "shoma" refers to you in the plural, as well as you in the formal. We really don't have a "TO" in English (familiar YOU). In Indonesian, the plural of YOU would be YOU YOU along with the same verb root as all other tenses. I hope this answers your question. Depending on the root of the language, these forms will differ. Hungarian is one of the few languages whose roots have been unable to trace. * Sepideh Niakian : Because ARE or IS are known as Irregular Verbs, meaning that it is conjugated in a way that is unusual or different from regular verbs like Talk. * Golnar J. Fozi: As an amateur grammarian, I am happy to give you what I know about the use of "You ARE" as opposed to "You IS". As you will see below, it all boils down to an issue of respect. The obvious answer to your question is that the English language uses "you" to address both the singular and the plural person(s). Hence when using the verb to be, we use the same word "are" in both the singular or plural sense. However, if I understand your query correctly, you wonder why we do not use the singular "is" when addressing one person and the plural "are" when addressing more than two persons. For example, why don't we say: "Jahanshah, you is a good man", and "Ali and Jahanshah, you are good men." I believe the answer to this question is that over time English language began to employ the word "you" for both the singular and plural addressees as a sign of respect. In the 12th Century, the widespread use of the respectful French plural pronoun of the second person vous gave English the word "you" and drove out the singular "thou". Originally, this was a sign of respect, very much similar to the "Royal We" that the Queen of England used, and even the late Shah was known to use in Farsi ("Ma" as opposed to "Man".) Thus, the plural second person pronoun "you" was used to address superiors at first, and then its use spread to equals then total strangers. By the mid 16th Century, it became the general form of address. To make a long, boring story short, in English we use the plural second person YOU ARE because we are respectful to all whom we address, even if we address them one person as a time. * Haleh: Here goes my comments (still won't tell you 'Why' though I'm afraid): Most languages have verbs that change depending upon the noun performing that verb. Among languages there are normally six categories of noun: First person Second person Third person First person plural Second person plural (formal) Third person plural Normally, the ending of verbs changes depending upon the noun involved. Hence you say "hastam" for "I am", "hasti" for "you are" amd "hast" for "he/she is". English has largely lost this change in verbs depending on the noun. For instance, the verb to run is very simple: I run You run He runs We run You run They run Only the third person ending has changed to "he runs". This is true of most verbs in English. The verb "to be" is unusual in English by changing its form considerably for the various nouns, therefore: I am (hastam) You are (hasti) He is (hast) We are (hastim) You are (hastid) They are (hastand) Here, both the first person singular (I am) and third person singular (he is) differ from the normal are . Why is this? Can't help you there. English never was a simple nor consistent language. * Arash Arfaee: Short answer, You are what you is! Do you have an interesting question to suggest for this page? Email us Response to previous quiz questions >>> HERE * Gifts will only be sent to an address in the U.S. A person who wins a gift during this month, cannot win another gift until the following month. Gifs selected by eworldrecords.com will be delivered in 7-12 days. Your quiz questions and answers will be considered for this section. Please email them here. This page will be updated with a new question as soon as the answer to the current quiz is received. 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