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As far as I know, the structure in the sentences like

All you people are the same

is not wrong (I just asked a question about it on this site). What about

All we people are the same

Is the structure correct in it? If no, why can't we say it while we can say "All you people are the same"?

I also think we can't say

All they people are the same

and we also can't say

All them people are the same

or

All of them people are the same

These last two sentences are used in slang as far as I know. Am I right?

1 Answer 1

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Close. It's perfectly fine to say

All (of) those people are the same.

since "them people" is generally not grammatical English. Yes, "them" is slang, but it's slang for those not they.

The reason the other pronouns do not work is that "you people" is an idiomatic expression, only in common use for perhaps the past 150 years. "We people" and "they people" are not idiomatic.

"We the people", however, is famous as the beginning of the first sentence of the preamble to the US Constitution, which also happens to sound nice when set to music.. It's probably not something you would use in everyday conversation, though.

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  • Thank you. How is "we people" not idiomatic though? I've seen native speakers use it many times. I am actually nearly sure that it can be said, but I am not very sure about "all we people". I found examples of "all we people" on google and google books though. Jul 1, 2018 at 2:51
  • @FireandIce It seems rare enough that I've never heard it. Apparently it's part of a passage from one version of the Bible, which seems the most common use. Other examples come from 100-year-old documents, or from the title of a book "We People". It would make sense to use it, but I think "all of us" is probably a safer bet.
    – Andrew
    Jul 2, 2018 at 1:06

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