In the Southern United States dialects of American English, the term y'all, a contraction of you all, serves as the vernacular second-person plural pronoun. Because, in formal written English, the second-person pronoun you can be both singular and plural, many regional or national dialects have developed an informal distinction. This distinction is often made by adding a word to follow you in order to make a pronominal phrase for the plural. In British English, for example, the function is served by the phrase you lot. In many U.S. dialects, we find you guys (or, quite often, yous guys). Likewise, in the Deep South, the appropriate term is y'all.