Learn English: THOU, THEE, THY, THINE

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more

lovely and more temperate."

So, you may have heard that before somewhere; it may sound

rather familiar. So, you may know that it's by Shakespeare,

the English poet and playwright. So, today, we have a lesson on

some slightly old-fashioned English language, but I've had a

few requests to cover this topic, so I'm responding to

those requests. And this is for native English speakers, as well

as for people who are learning English, people who usually

watch my channel to learn English or improve their

English. But I think native speakers of English will also

find this useful if you're interested in, for example,

poetry and older styles of English language and literature.

So... So, today's lesson, then, is about what I call the archaic

second-person singular form, which is: "thee", "thou", "thy",

and "thine", and "thyself" is another form of it. So, these

words tend to appear in poetry. Okay. So, I'm just going to show

you some text here.

Okay, so here we have the words, we've got: "thou", "thee",

"thy", "thine", and "thyself. And you can see that the modern

equivalent is just: "you", "you", "your", "your" or

"yours", and "yourself". So, it depends whether it's the subject

of the sentence, or the object, or the possessive, or the

reflexive. So, I'll explain that as we go along.

So, with "thou", like in the quotation I began with: "Thou

art more lovely and more temperate", it means: "You are

more lovely." So, "you", "thou" - they are the subject of that

statement. "You are", "thou art". Okay.

So, also to say that these words, oh, a few 100 years ago,

at the time of Shakespeare and before a bit before Shakespeare

as well, and after Shakespeare, writers and speakers, also

people were using these words in conversation, too. It was just

the usual form. I'll explain a bit more about that on... In the

next section. So, that's "thou" is the subject. Thou art more

lovely. You are more lovely."

And then when it's the object, it changes to "thee", so: "Shall

I compare thee to a summer's day?" means: "Shall I compare

you to a summer's day?" So, that's the object. Okay.

And then "thy" is the possessive; so that means your,

what belongs to you. Okay. You could say: "Thy... Thy face, thy

beautiful face", something like that. "Your face, your beautiful

face", that kind of thing. Okay.

And then "thine" is an alternative. It depends

sometimes. If the next word begins with a vowel: "Thine

eyes", for example, you wouldn't say: "Thy eyes". "Thy eyes", it

sounds a bit ugly because there's a break between "thy

eyes". So: "Thine eyes", it sort of flows better. "Thine eyes are

shining" or whatever; meaning: "Your eyes". So, that's the

possessive; belonging to you.

And then the reflexive: "thyself" meaning "yourself".

You could say... If you look in a mirror, you see yourself, so

in this older form, you might say: "Thou seest thyself in the

mirror", something like that. "You see yourself in the

mirror." Okay. So, that's the general overview of these words.

So, if we just carry on, just to explain a little bit more about

them. So, these are all the second-person singular, archaic

form; the old-fashioned style of English from around the time of

Shakespeare, as I said. And it's often found in poetry and also

in Shakespeare's plays, and older writings in general; old

editions of the Bible, for example. And it's the old sort

of informal, familiar form.

Whereas when in the past when people said: "You" that was sort

of more formal and respectful, which is still the case in a lot

of other languages all over the world, but I'm just using here

examples from French and German. In French, "tu" is the familiar

form of "you". And "du" in German is the familiar form of

"you".

So, this familiar form, although it's not used in English

anymore, or only in poetry or for particular purposes, it's

still used in a lot of other languages; French and German,

for example. And it's to do with how well you know somebody. If

you want to be... You know. If it's a friend or a family

member, you might use "tu" or "du". If it's somebody you want

to show more respect and you don't know them so well, you're

being more formal, you would use a different form in that

language. So, there we are.

So, just to move on from there. Here we are with some quotations

so that you can see how these words are used in particular

quotations. So, here we have: "Thou art as wise as thou art

beautiful." This is from Shakespeare. If you want to find

out where exactly it's from, rather than me telling you, I

think you might find it quite a nice bit of research you can do.

If you just Google this quotation, I'm sure you will

find where it comes from. And it might be quite fun to do that

for you, rather than me just tell you where it comes from.

You know it's from Shakespeare, but where? Is it from a play? Is

it from a poem? Well, I think Google will help you to find

out. So: "Thou art".

You can see also the verb. We... In modern English, we would say:

"You are as wise as you are beautiful", but the verb also

usually changes that goes with "thou" and I'll explain a little

bit more about that later on in the video. Okay.

And then here's another Shakespeare quotation: "I pray

thee, gentle mortal, sing again." So: "I pray you, or I

beg you, I ask you: Please sing again. Because I like your

singing, so please; I pray you. I pray thee, sing again. That

sounded nice, so please sing again." So... Okay.

And then this: This sounds very similar to what I was quoting at

the beginning; I wonder if it comes from the same poem,

perhaps. Summer is mentioned again. "Shall I compare thee to

a summers day?" So, this line says: "But thy, eternal summer,

shall not fade." So, this is the possessive now, but: "Your

eternal summer shall not fade." Okay? So: "Thy eternal summer."

I just wonder why it's not: "Thine eternal summer", because

it doesn't fit the rule I've mentioned earlier, but then

Shakespeare did what he felt like, so it sounds okay to me.

"Thy eternal summer."

Okay. And then we have another poet here, John Donne. And in

something he wrote, which again, you can find if you Google it:

"My face in thine eye; thine in mine appears." So, this does

follow that rule. He's saying: "Thine eye", not "Thy eye". "Thy

eye" sounds a bit odd. So, what he's saying is: "These two

people who are looking at each other, they can see their own

reflection in the other person's eye, like in a mirror." So, he

says: "My face in thine eye, and your... Your... My face in your

eye, and your face in my eye. We can see each other in...

Reflected in each other's eyes, like in a mirror." That's what

he's saying, in that poem. "My face in thine eye; thine in mine

appears." Okay.

Then we have a Greek philosopher, Plato. So, this is

obviously a quote, a translation into English. So: "Do thine own

work and know thyself." So: "Do your own work and know

yourself." So, I suppose that means just: "Do. Do your own

thing, and understand yourself through what you do. It's part

of your identity." So, again, we've got that rule: "thine own

work", not "thy own work". Whoever translated it chose to

use that form: "thine own". Okay?

Then we have some Shakespeare again: "Hamlet". Well, that

gives you a big clue as where it comes from, if you've heard of a

play called Hamlet. So: "Hamlet, thou hast thy father much

offended. Hamlet, you have your father much offended." Meaning:

"Hamlet, you have offended your father very much." The word

order is a bit strange, because it's poetic. But "thou hast" you

can see again. "Hast" - the verb ending changes. It's not "have",

"you have", "thou hast". So, as I say, we'll... I'll explain

that later on. Okay, so Hamlet has offended his father. Or

rather, I think, not his real father, but his stepfather or

his uncle. He's both, really, for various complicated reasons,

which I won't go into.

So, here's our quotation that we started with: "Shall I compare

thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate."

So, "thee" and "you are", "thou art." We've got the different

verb ending again.

Okay, and then we have Shelley who was quite a bit later than

Shakespeare, sort of early 19th century, but then poets did tend

to keep using "thee" and "thou" a lot more because it kind of

goes with the poetic style. So, in poetry, you might find it a

lot, you know, coming more up to date in time, because it's a

poetic tradition in a way. So, let's see what we have here.

Now, this is Shelley writing or speaking to a bird, a skylark.

So, it's a bird high up in the sky, singing, making an amazing

sound, and he's writing a poem to the bird. So, he says: "Hail

to thee, blithe spirit." So: "Hail to you." Or, you know:

"Hello." He's saying: "Hello, hello. Hello, you up there. Hail

to thee, blithe spirit". "Blithe" means "happy". Happy

spirit, because the bird is flying around, singing, sounding

very happy.

"Bird, thou never wert. Bird, you never were." So, here we've

got the past tense of the ver "to be", which is usually "wa

" or "were". But here, with "th u", it changes again. "Thou wer

"Bird thou never wert, That from Heaven, or near it, Pourest thy

" or "Thou never wert". So, the e's another verb ending that cha

full heart." So, he's saying "This bird is pouring its hear

ges. Okay? So, he's saying: "Yo were never really a bird." He

hinks this bird is so spe ial; it's very different fro

other birds.

out." So: "Pourest thy ful heart - you pour your ful

heart." So, you can see, again "to pour" is to pour ou

something from your heart or t pour... In a literal sense, "t

pour a liquid" like pouring cup of tea from a tea pot, tha

sort of thing, or pouring wate from a jug. So: "pour" an

"pourest". "Thou pourest th heart, thy full heart in profus

strains of unpremeditated art. So, meaning the sounds, th

strains, the music from th bird. "Unpremeditated" meanin

sort of unplanned; it's jus spontaneous. The bird is jus

singing spontaneously an pouring out its heart in a ver

happy mood, apparently. Okay, s we have several examples, we'v

got "thee", and "thou", an "thy". So, that's a good exampl

using three of the forms

Okay, so now just to explain a little bit about the verb

endings, and I've just given a few different verbs here to show

how the form works. So, the verb "to know": "I know, you know, he

knows, she knows". For "thou", it's "thou knowest" or "thou

know'st". Offered you get this apostrophe to show there's a

missing letter: "know'st". And, in poetry, that's quite

important because the rhythm of the poetry matters; the number

of syllables in a line. And sometimes the poet just wants

one syllable, rather than two, so they can choose between "thou

knowest" and "thou know'st". So, two syllables with "knowest" and

one syllable with "know'st". And that choice is often made

because of the rhythm or the meter of the line to make sure

it's not one beat too much or one beat too few. Okay.

So, then the verb "to go": "They'll goest". So, often, it's

an "s-t", that goes on the end of the verb. So, then: "to

make": "thou makest". Or "thou mak'st" if you just want one

syllable, "mak'st", like that. And then the verb "to be": "thou

art" because it's an irregular verb. "I am, you are, he is, she

is," but "thou art". So... Or it could be: "Thou beest, thou

beest". It's not... It's not meaning: "You're a beast." It's

not the same spelling, anyway. "Thou beest, thou beest, beest".

And then the past tense, also: "I was, you were, he was, she

was, thou wast" in the past. Or another alternative: "Thou

wert", which is closer to "were". "You were, thou wert".

And "thou wast" is closer to "I was, I was, thou wast". So, it's

closer to that. Okay?

And then "to have": "thou hast". "Thou"... And then the past:

"Thou hadst". A bit difficult to pronounce. So, "had". "I had in

the past. You had, we had, they had, thou hadst", so the "s-t"

does come up a lot. Okay.

"To do": "I do, you do. He does. She does. Thou dost" or "Thou

doest. Doest". And then in the past: "I did, you did, he did."

It's all "did", but: "Thou didst, didst". Okay.

And then "can": "Thou canst". "Could": "Thou couldst". "May":

"Thou mayest" or "Thou mayst" if you want just one syllable

instead of two. "Should": "Thou shouldst". "Would": "Thou

wouldst". "Shall": "Thou shalt". Okay. And "will": "Thou wilt".

And "must": "Thou must". And there, there's no change at all.

No change to the verb. Okay? There's always one exception at

least. Right. So, I hope that's all clear.

And then we have a bit of information about how this form

is still used even in a very modern way. In films, for

example. So, in Star Wars in The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader

says: "What is thy bidding, my master?" So: "What is your

bidding?" Meaning: "What do you want me to do? What are my

orders for today?" That sort of thing. "What is thy bidding, my

master? What? What must I do? What do you want me to do?"

Okay? So, if you're a Star Wars fan, that's probably a very

familiar line.

And then also in some regional dialects in the UK, Lancashire,

and Yorkshire, up in the north, and also in the west, more

further south. But in the west these are used still. So, some

people might say: "Sit thee down", meaning: "Sit yourself

down. Sit..." Or: "Sit you down." I've heard people say:

"Sit you down, sit you down, sit thee down. I'll get thee a cup

of tea", something like that. "Sit thee down."

And then people also say: "Thou knows, thou knows", which is...

Means: "You know", or "Thou knowest" as we had earlier with

the verb ending: "Thou knowest". Some people, mostly in the

north, I think: "Thou knows, thou knows". Or they might

pronounce it: "Thou knows, thou knows" because they have some

different vowel sounds.

So, I hope that's been a useful explanation, whether you're a

native English speaker, who's perhaps never quite been sure of

homw these words work. Sometimes you get people using them, but

they use the wrong form or they don't put the right ending on

the verb because they're not really clear on how it works

grammatically. So, I hope this helps to see, if you're... If

you're actually writing poetry yourself, you might want to use

it in the correct way. Okay.

So, that's... That's the... That's the lesson. And there is

a quiz. If you'd like to do the quiz just to test your knowledge

on this, do go to www.engvid.com for the quiz. And you might also

like to look out for my several videos I've already made on

poetry, sometimes looking at a particular poem, and analyzing

it. So, do look out for my other poetry videos. And so that's it,

really. So, I will see thee again soon I hope and take care.

And all the best with the quiz. Bye for now, then. Bye.