How do you politely refer to a group of people with the pronoun you?


Specifically, if a teacher said "I've finished grading **your** tests.",
adressing the students, would he use あなた? I've seen it been said a couple
times that あなた isn't that polite, so would the teacher use it to refer to his
students? Or would he use another word?




In some cases, including a teacher talking to students, using あなた sounds cold,
rather than non-polite. (Using あなた **towards** parents or teachers is
considered impolite.)

A teacher can use あなたがた to students, e.g. when s/he is scolding them for some
bad behavior. But in a case like the one in question, I suppose the most
natural would be みなさん (or less politely and more friendlily みんな).

Using みなさん as polite plural _you_ works broadly (e.g. in a working
environment, to colleagues), but as mentioned above, whether it's ok to use
あなた would be ultimately a case-by-case matter.

* * *

For the particular sentence, not using a pronoun at all may be even more
natural: テストの採点が終わりました. _Who_ did the grading _whose_ tests is just obvious
and can/should be omitted.




In some cases, including a teacher talking to students, using あなた sounds cold,
rather than non-polite. (Using あなた **towards** parents or teachers is
considered impolite.)

A teacher can use あなたがた to students, e.g. when s/he is scolding them for some
bad behavior. But in a case like the one in question, I suppose the most
natural would be みなさん (or less politely and more friendlily みんな).

Using みなさん as polite plural _you_ works broadly (e.g. in a working
environment, to colleagues), but as mentioned above, whether it's ok to use
あなた would be ultimately a case-by-case matter.

* * *

For the particular sentence, not using a pronoun at all may be even more
natural: テストの採点が終わりました. _Who_ did the grading _whose_ tests is just obvious
and can/should be omitted.

