Thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself.

After having good enough responses for questions 2, 3 and 4, this thread can be just about the question 1, if it does not "die" or get locked for some unknown reason.


There is a singular "you" in all other languages I study, Finnish (my native language), German, Swedish and Russian, and I had always wondered why is there no singular "you" in English. Last autumn I found out that there actually was this singular form, thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself, and I became curious about it. I remember seeing it used only once, when Darth Vader (sorry about the reference to Star Wars in non-Star Wars board) says "What is thy bidding, my master?". These Forums are the only place I talk with native English speaking people, so I thought why not just ask.

Here are the questions:

1. Do you use any of these forms? If yes, on every day life or only on special cases? Or can you even understand them?

2. Do native English speaking people learn these forms just like that, but don't use them? Or do people think they are just some historical or sophisticated (not sure about the translation) words?

3. Would it be very odd, if I start using them? Can all native English speakers understand me if I do? Because there is an advantage to use both singular and plural forms, for example when talking in group of people. If you say you, it can mean the whole group or just one person, so you can't be sure about it. If you say thou, they know that you are speaking to only one person.

4. Is this question stupid or bad in some way, because it looks fine to me at least...


Note: If this has been asked before (can't understand why that would have happened), the search function didn't bring it up.


Thank you.

 

even though i am not native i can tell you that that are very old forms of english nowdays noone uses them (see in shakespears play s you mind find them and in the canterbury tales . but i think it would look odd if someone s staring using them

 

Actually, "You" is both the singular and plural versions.

Thou, Thee, Thy, Thine etc are all Early Modern English forms for "you".

1. I use them, yes. But I'm just a weird person who enjoys languages

2. They are just historical words. Most people learn them when they start learning about Shakespeare.

3. Well, you could start using it, but people would think you very odd indeed.

4. Yes and no.

 

Although I'm not a native English speaker I have encountered thou, thy, thine etc in religious contexts, especially in regards to prayers. Thou then refers to God (as in Thy will be done).

These other langugages have other ways of special usage of personal pronoums. In Swedish, you could historically employ variations of Ni (=you in plural form) when addressing for example, the monarch. What marks this out from everyday use is the capital letter in the beginning.

 

weren't all the "th"-pronouns Danish loan words? Or something. There was something with them...

but that's an excellent question.

 

Anglo-Saxon words. Which we shared with Denmark. But they're archaic. "You" is still both singular and Plural.

 

Its funny how so far only one person with English as his native tongue posted in this thread

 

I wish people would look in my profile sometimes. As much as it annoys people to find out... I am a male

 

If you started using those words and were already my friend, I would tolerate your oddity with jovial affection, if I had just met you and you used those words, I would think you were a total ******, unless you were amusing, in which case I would laugh.

 

Sorry I'm too lazy to check other people profiles

 

That was a general statement, lots of people think I'm female

Anyway, now two English Native Speakers have posted, one Pommie and one Aussie

 

Yeah, but why?

 

Because we're too lazy to conform to European standards

 

The real question is:

Why doesn't English has a more "respectable" you? E.g. Dutch "u"

 

In Slovak and Czech we have different words for singular and plural "you". The singular "you" is "ty", but it's only used in a familiar way, among family, friends, etc. If you're talking to a stranger or in formal speech, you use "vy", which is also plural form of "you". It's also more respectable addressing someone as "vy" (in the past, kids were obliged to address their parents as "vy", but now this would be considered way too old fashioned and it's normal to address your mother and father as "ty"). Also, in the past, if you wanted to show even more respect to someone, you'd use "oni", which means "they".

 

Well, the respectable form was lost somewhere along the way. I can't recall German having one, so I think Dutch is the only Germanic language that has one, the 'u' instead of 'je'.

When addressing the Queen, if you wanted to be smart, you could of course use 'they', as she refers to herself as 'we', but that's the Royal 'we' and is completely silly, as it means just the same as 'one' in the context, and she uses that as well.

I just reckon that laziness is the reason.

 

Most English speakers only use those archaic words in a handful of circumstances: 1) English class - older literature pieces (e.g. Shakespeare, Chaucer); 2) many Christians use them regularly in hymns and in the King James translation of the Bible; and 3) Rennaisance Faires and other anachronistic recreational pursuits.

 

German uses "Sie" as the respectable form of "you". The singular "you" is "du", respectable singular is "Sie" (same as "they") and plural "you" is "ihr".

 

Shows how much German I know I only remembered 'Du'.

Right, stereotype time: We don't have a polite version of 'you' because we are always polite.

Honest.

 

Suuuuuuuure you are...

 

The British invented manners, didn't you know? [/Snob with a monocle]

 

[voice=Otto from "A Fish Called Wanda"] Oh, you English are sooo superior, aren't you? [/voice]

[/obligatory]

 

Heh, of course

Trust us to derail this to the point of almost-Python

 

Shh, don't blow our cover!

 

Oh no, please contine