"You are" vs "you is" when "you" is used as both singular and plural?

The word "you," when used in a sentence, is always used as "you are" rather than "you is". This happens regardless of whether the speaker is speaking to one person or many. Is "you are", when applied to a single person, an example of the numerous exceptions in the English language? Is there ever a situation where it is appropriate to use "you is"?

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4 Answers 4

All English verbs except the full modals have three finite forms (finite forms are those which have tense, number and person):

one form for present tense, 3d person singular . full modals lack this form
one form for present tense, all other persons and numbers
one form fall past tense, all persons and numbers

The verb be, and only that verb, has two additional forms

Here is a comparison of conjugations for be, love, and the full modal may:

PRESENT I AM we are I love we love I may we may you are you are you love you love you may you may he/she/it IS they are he/she/it LOVES they love he/she/it may they may PAST I WAS we were I loved we loved I might we might you were you were you loved you loved you might you might he/she/it WAS they were he/she/it loved they loved e/she/it might they might

So you are is not an exception; the exceptions are I am and I was. You is is not possible.

English used to have a distinct second person singular pronoun, thou, but dropped it in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries. It had its own verb forms,too (endings in -st, except be had the form thou art); but happily those were dropped, too; so there's that much less you have to to learn.