Shakespeare’s Grammar – What art thou on about?

a Most languages have a familiar form and a polite form of ‘you’. In

Shakespeare’s time that was also true of English.

Thou was the familiar form of you. When we use thou, the verb attached to it
changes.

For example:
Thou art = you are Are you…? = Art thou…?
Thou hast = you have Have you…? = Hast
thou…?
Thou dost = you do Do you…? = Dost thou…?

‘You’ was the polite form used when speaking to strangers or social superiors
and is also used for the plural form.

Change the following sentences into Elizabethan grammar:

1. Who are you?

2. Have you been here long?

3. [write your own question]

Write out the following quotations, and change the words in brackets into
Elizabethan English.

1. (Do you) think because (you are) virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

2. How (do you) like this tune?

3. (Have you) forgot yourself?

Thee was used when the person was the object* of the sentence.
B e.g. I give thee an apple NOT I give thou an apple.
*The person is the object of the sentence when something is being done to them.
e.g. You gave me an apple (‘you’ is the subject because ‘you’ is doing the
giving)
I gave you an apple (‘you’ is the object because ‘you’ is being given the
apple)

1. The girls wish to dance with _______.

2. I am making a drawing of ________.
3. Poor fool, I can only pity _______.
4. Hast ______ the letter I gave you?

C
 Thy means ‘your’:
e.g. This is thy doing; I wish thy heart were mine.
Thine means ‘yours’:
e.g. This apple is now thine; All I have is thine.

Use one of the four words below to complete these sentences:

thou thee thy thine

1. _______hast done me wrong

2. I have never lied to _______
3. ________knowest my heart is ________.
4. Why dost ________ not believe me?
5. If only ________ love were as constant as mine, _______wouldst feel the anguish
that I do.

May the force be with thee. Now thy task is to write a short letter to thy friend using some
Shakespearean these and thous and even a thine or two if thou art clever!

Thy letter goest here: