We may speak the same language, but are we saying the same thing?

Well, I should have seen it coming.

A couple of weeks ago when a column of mine about regional words ran in this newspaper, I managed to irritate a couple of people. People from the Bronx. People I’d accused of saying “youse” instead of “you” as in, “Youse people from the Bronx talk funny.”

I asked readers for contributions for a follow-up column, and I got an earful. But as it turns out, a couple of readers explained to me that, in fact, “youse” isn’t just a Bronx word. It’s a Brooklyn word.

“Growing up in Brooklyn, we said ‘youse ’ just like youse guys who live in that place with the zoo,” wrote Ray Hughes of Monroe, N.Y.

He went on to express a certain amount of annoyance with the Bronx. “And why is da Bronx the only borough that requires a definite article?”

He’s got a point. No one says da Queens or da Brooklyn. Just da Bronx.

But wait. The “youse” issue is far from settled.

The first time Kristin Frillmann of Milford, Pa., heard the word was in 2014, when she moved from New York City to Dingmans Ferry. “I couldn’t believe it,” she wrote. “It was a social worker addressing a church congregation who used ‘youse’!”

The word grew on her, though. Now she kind of likes it. “It’s useful.”

But Jim Frey of Chester, N.Y., begs to differ. “Nobody says ‘youse,’” he explained. “Listen. It’s ‘yiz – ’as in ‘What’ve yiz been doing?’”

Sorry Jim, but someone else begs to differ with you. It’s “ya’ll” according to Mollie of Harriman, N.Y., who confesses to being an Ozark hillbilly from Arkansas.

Mollie was also kind enough to provide a southern guide to giving directions. “We were always good with directions,” she wrote. It’s very easy to get anywhere you want to go in Arkansas, according to Mollie - just go over yonder a piece; or down yonder; or up yonder; or out yonder.

See? Easy.

There’s also a difference of opinion about how to refer to that sandy place where water meets land and people lie around on towels.

According to Mary Eileen Schoen of Wantage, N.J., going to the beach and going to the shore are totally different things.

When she is on Long Island, where she was born and raised, she goes to the beach. “But here in New Jersey, we go to the shore,” she explained. In fact, the word “to” isn’t even necessary according to a friend of hers who was raised in Jersey. He says he “goes down the shore.”

And Laurie Dever, who’s from Bergen County, N.J., wrote to say that Long Beach Island in New Jersey, is never called “the island.”

“The island is Long Island,” she said. “Long Beach Island is LBI!!!”

She’s right, of course. Exit 63. LBI. I know this from personal experience.

One other option for describing where water meets sand comes from my granddaughter Devon, who lives on the cusp of Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vt. “We go to the waterfront,” she told me.

Then there are the people who simply make up words of their own regardless of where they live. Take Ray Hughes’ mother-in-law. “She insists that the plural of spouse is spice,” wrote Hughes.

(Of course, having a few spice might just add a little spice to life.)

He’s not the only one with family members who make up their own words. Just ask Mary Dinos of West Milford, N.J. “My mother told me that her sons said ‘geeet? ’when they meant ‘did you eat?’” Clearly, Mary is a bit reluctant to claim those same boys as her own brothers.

Along the same lines, there are those who insert a letter into a word that just isn’t supposed to be there, according to Michael Chirichella from Jefferson Township, N.J.

“When I went to college in Ohio, I discovered that they stick the letter R into weird places, and they do it very matter-of-factly,” he wrote. “For example, when they are talking about the first president of the United States, the third letter of his last name is R followed by the rest of it.”

I also heard from several readers who departed from the topic at hand and wandered into grammar felonies that annoyed them. A lot. I can relate. Every time I see an apostrophe used incorrectly, I want to grab a Sharpie and scribble it out.

I’ll save those for another time. But I would like to leave you with a question to ponder, one posed by William Grohoski of Durlandville, N.Y.

“Just where does upstate in New York begin?” he wrote. “Certainly not at the Hudson River. And I don’t feel Orange and Sullivan are upstate.”

Good question. Most city folks think everywhere this side of the George WaRshington Bridge is upstate. But most of us here think we’re downstate and that upstate doesn’t begin until maybe Syracuse. We need a consensus!

Meanwhile, my apologies to all the Bronx folks who know how to talk right, including my city cousins. The rest of youse ... well, best if you just don’t talk.