u.
you (polite)
Meaning & usage
you (polite)
Bent u klaar?
Bent u er nog?
you (polite)
Ik zal het aan u geven.
Dit zal niet werken voor u.
thee (dialectal)
Ik doe dat wel voor u.
you (polite)
Hebt u die oefening gemaakt?
you (polite)
Ze zullen dat wel voor u doen.
yourself (polite)
U meldt u/zich aan.
Meld u aan!
yourselves (polite)
U meldt u/zich aan.
Meld u aan!
thyself (dialectal)
Gij hebt u niet gewassen.
yourselves (dialectal)
Wast u eens.
Where this word comes from
Originally the dative and accusative form of jij/gij, from Middle Dutch u, from Old Dutch iu, from Proto-West Germanic *iwwiz, from Proto-Germanic *iwwiz, West Germanic variant of *izwiz, dative/accusative of *jūz, from Proto-Indo-European *yúHs. Doublet of jou. The use as a nominative form is linked to the polite address uwe edelheid (“your nobility, your gentility”), which was shortened to U E. in writing and at times accordingly pronounced /yˈ(w)eː/. It is debated, however, whether this was the actual cause of the development or whether it merely reinforced it. Compare English you, which was originally an object form, as well as Afrikaans ons and nonstandard Dutch hun. Cognate with West Frisian jo, Low German jo, ju, English you, German euch.
The twenty-first letter of the Dutch alphabet, written in the Latin script.
Where this word comes from
Originally the dative and accusative form of jij/gij, from Middle Dutch u, from Old Dutch iu, from Proto-West Germanic *iwwiz, from Proto-Germanic *iwwiz, West Germanic variant of *izwiz, dative/accusative of *jūz, from Proto-Indo-European *yúHs. Doublet of jou. The use as a nominative form is linked to the polite address uwe edelheid (“your nobility, your gentility”), which was shortened to U E. in writing and at times accordingly pronounced /yˈ(w)eː/. It is debated, however, whether this was the actual cause of the development or whether it merely reinforced it. Compare English you, which was originally an object form, as well as Afrikaans ons and nonstandard Dutch hun. Cognate with West Frisian jo, Low German jo, ju, English you, German euch.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.