Good stuff. French was my worst subject in high school, but I remember that 'vous' is 2nd person plural but much more polite and respectful even when talking to a single person who is not a close friend, mate, or confidant. 'Tu' is used as singular 2nd person for spouse, colleague, friend, etc. One exception: one never uses 'vous' when talking to a pet or other animal. That would just be silly.
Pretty sensible, I'd say. They use 'vous' in much the way Southerners use 'y'all' with a person they don't know closely. Southerners do use all y'all with group, and the French use "vous tous" as the equivalent of 'all y'all'. It transliterates to "you all", so there's a lot of parallelism between French and southern English in this one area.
A gender-neutral pronoun in English would be useful. 'One' is the closest we have, I guess, but it doesn't quite do the job. I was taught to use 'he or she' or 'his or hers' optionaly just once in an essay and then use 'he' and 'his' thereafter for brevity. Masculine forms were to be the default. Context was supposed to cover the rest ... it worked for me, but for others, it became a political cause and a 'raison d'etre'.
#1, agreed, wasting food is unacceptable
#2, I say ya'll all the time, but being from the NE, didn't pick it up until I got into country music and it stuck.
#3, if I had to choose, most certainly one is preferable to the borg
Good stuff. French was my worst subject in high school, but I remember that 'vous' is 2nd person plural but much more polite and respectful even when talking to a single person who is not a close friend, mate, or confidant. 'Tu' is used as singular 2nd person for spouse, colleague, friend, etc. One exception: one never uses 'vous' when talking to a pet or other animal. That would just be silly.
Pretty sensible, I'd say. They use 'vous' in much the way Southerners use 'y'all' with a person they don't know closely. Southerners do use all y'all with group, and the French use "vous tous" as the equivalent of 'all y'all'. It transliterates to "you all", so there's a lot of parallelism between French and southern English in this one area.
A gender-neutral pronoun in English would be useful. 'One' is the closest we have, I guess, but it doesn't quite do the job. I was taught to use 'he or she' or 'his or hers' optionaly just once in an essay and then use 'he' and 'his' thereafter for brevity. Masculine forms were to be the default. Context was supposed to cover the rest ... it worked for me, but for others, it became a political cause and a 'raison d'etre'.
I’m laughing out loud at your footnote to y’all.
Your meal system is impressive and enviable. Also see “How Good Can Leftovers Be” by me :)
“Robber Baron” is a misnomer ;-)