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In many communities I have seen people attempt to use the archaic pronouns listed in my title. Frequently they are used incorrectly. Having studied Medieval and Elizabethan period literature as a graduate student I wanted to use my knowledge of the vernacular to assist in the proper usage of these terms. The work herein is original in that the examples I use, and the examples to which I refer are those I feel most conducive to teaching the proper usage of these words. The rest is the English language which by its very use is an act of plagiarism.
(NOTE: Some have the misconception that the thees and thous, etc., were only used liturgically and were not part of the vernacular. This is patently untrue.)
So on we go, to the Globe Theater and to the King James and Orthodox Study Bibles (the Orthodox Study Study Bible is the version used by the Eastern Orthodox Church and properly uses these words. I use these two Bibles to illustrate the proper and unchanged uses. The Orthodox Study Bible used the KJV but, it also included the Deuterocanonical Books (known as the "apocrypha" to protestants) and utilised - like the KJV - the all but forgotten subjunctive mood of the English language. This more formal syntactic mood is still found in the Romance languages, those being Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, French, and Spanish. Any of you that speak even a smattering of these languages will have spoken in the subjunctive mood.
But soft, let us commence our brief pedagogy.
The salient point to understanding the proper uses of the thees and thous is to understand the syntactic cases in which they are used. Below is a rough table that illustrated this and really is the central point of this essay. Refer to it when you are uncertain and you will get it right.
Case: Nominative Singular: thou. Plural: ye or you
Example taken from the Bible:
“And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou (singular)? --- Hast thou (singular) considered my servant Job? --- Then Satan answered the LORD --- Hast not thou (singular) made an hedge about him,” (Job 1:7,8,10)
Case: Objective Singular: thee Plural: you
Example taken from the Bible:
“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you (plural), that he may sift you (plural) as wheat: But I have prayed for thee (singular), and when thou (singular) art converted, strengthen thy (singular) brethren.” (Luke 22:31,32)
Case: Possessive Singular: thy, thine Plural: your, yours
Example taken from the Bible:
“And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee (singular): nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you (plural).” (1.Cor.12:21)
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