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?
Learn English – In what way is “are us” used
idioms
Best Answer
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[s] are us" is never going to cut it.