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In what way is "are us" used? Like: what does "toys are us" mean.. Or what does "heavy weights are us" mean?

Does "are us" always refer to several people? Or can one also use it when referring just to oneself?

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4 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

It's invariably used in fairly lame "witty trading name/slogan" contexts, which as others have pointed out, all derive from the original "Toys R Us". The noun that precedes it is always something "we" (not "us") specialise in supplying.

I can easily imagine someone in a group of enthusiastic drinking buddies saying, for example "Alkies are us!", but after Googling "are us" -shopping and leafing through several pages of results, I have to say it's not exactly a commonplace idiomatic usage outside commercial contexts (that's to say, I didn't come across a single instance of anything 'non-commerical').

Grammatically speaking it's, well, not. You can say, for example, "We are human" in standard English, and "Human are we" in Yoda-speak, but "Human are us" is never going to cut it.

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up vote 1 down vote

If you accept the first of the following then the rest follow in a similar pattern:

  • It is me
  • It is us
  • They are us
  • Toys are us

So the last is a possible response to the question "Who are toys?" but the shop's name is simply saying "You can buy toys here, as they are what we do."

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They are not all part of the same pattern. “It is me / us.” is a special construction that uses the empty “it”. Or do you think it’s normal to say, “Henry is me.”? – Pitarou Mar 3 '12 at 15:46
1  
@Pitarou "Henry is me" works in response to "I just got a letter from some idiot called Henry" and usually produces profuse embarrassment and apologies – Henry Mar 3 '12 at 19:54
But "Toys are us" is semantically quite different. "They are us" and "Henry is me" are both identifying the referent of an existing expression whose referent is hitherto unknown. "Toys are us" is making a substantive claim, and arguably not one of identity. – Colin Fine Mar 4 '12 at 0:36
@Henry That’s not the English I speak! I’d say either “That’s me!” or “I’m Henry.” Maybe the coiner of “Toys Я Us” spoke a dialect similar to yours? – Pitarou Mar 4 '12 at 14:38
up vote 1 down vote

It clearly isn’t standard English grammar and, as others have pointed out, this form is hardly ever used except in shop names.

My best guess is that the founder started with “We are Toys”, and then experimented with ways of moving the word “Toys” to the beginning of the sentence to make it more prominent.

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up vote -1 down vote

In the store name, it is not "are" but a backward letter R.
enter image description here

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2  
-1: the name of the store is a clear pun on "toys are us", so much that even on their website you can see it spelled are Toys"R"Us. – nico Mar 3 '12 at 14:25
So much so that the ARE was shortened to R when the founder of the company opened a store and the original name could not fit on the store's sign. Source answers.com – Laure Mar 3 '12 at 14:41
1  
That’s really not helpful. It’s perfectly clear that the ‘Я’ is meant to mean ‘are’. – Pitarou Mar 3 '12 at 15:37

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