Why ‘You’ Is One of the Most Difficult Words to Translate

Translators face plenty of challenges conveying meaning while moving across different languages. It’s not just a problem of finding equivalent words. Different languages often have structural differences indicating formality, plurality, and gender of the participants in a conversation. Translation is hard.

In this TED-Ed video, we dig into the problem of translating the word “you,” a pronoun loaded with complexity. Dig in, y’all:

For more from TED-Ed on this lesson, check out this page, featuring quizzes and discussion.