Name: Date:

Introduction:
There is no excuse for not understanding Shakespeare’s language. With that said,
anyone who reads Shakespeare must break through language barriers before they
are able to understand a play. In order to better understand Hamlet, there are
three language barriers that we must break through:
1. Omissions,
2. Vocabulary, and
3. Shakespeare’s unusual arrangement of words (a.k.a. Shakespeare’s unusual
syntax)
Check-In Question 1: Using the context clues from the introduction, what is the
definition of the word “syntax”. The arrangement of words

Academic
Vocabular
y Omission Key Points:
• Shakespeare often left out letters, syllables, and whole words.
Omission • These omissions really aren't that much different from the way we speak
The words, today.
phrases, or • To help us understand Shakespeare’s omissions, we need to familiarize
letters that ourselves with his most frequent contractions.
are left out

Everyday Speech Everyday Speech Without Omission

"Been to class yet?" "Have you been to class yet?"

“Heard Dougherty’s givin' "No, I have not been to class. I heard that Ms. Dougherty is giving
a test." a test today."

"Wha'sup wi'that?" "What is up with that?"

Shakespeare’s Most Frequent Contractions

'tis = it is i' = in

ope = open e'er = ever

o'er = over oft = often
gi' = give a' = he
ne'er =
e'en = even
never
READING STRATEGY: IDENTIFYING SYNTAX

Academic READING STRATEGY: IDENTIFYING SYNTAX

Vocabular
y Key Points:
Syntax: • The most common syntax in a sentence is: subject, verb, object.
• Shakespeare’s unusual arrangement of words is called inversion.
How words
are ordered • By identifying the subject, verb and object, and rearranging the word order
and we can come to understand difficult passages.
arranged

Subject
Analyze Syntax
The person, Instructions: Identify the subject, verb and object in each of the following
place, thing
or idea that sentences.
is acting or
being. Example: I ate the sandwich.
Subject Verb Object
Verb 1. I the sandwich ate.
A word that
conveys an
action or
2. Ate the sandwich I.
state of
being
3. Ate I the sandwich.
Object
Create Your Own Syntax
A word that
receives the
Instructions: See if you can rearrange the words from the example sentence
action and create two more unique sentences that convey the same meaning.
Inversion 4. The sandwich I ate.
5. The sandwich ate I.
Unusual
word order. Using Syntax to Paraphrase
In Hamlet, Instructions: Read the following lines from Act 1 and paraphrase them. Follow
Shakespeare
often placed these tips:
the verb or 1.Apply vocabulary pre-reading strategies.
object before
the subject. 2. Read from punctuation mark to punctuation mark
3. Identify Syntax and rearrange word order.

A. King Claudius: Therefore my sometime sister, now my queen,

Have I, Taken to wife. (1.2)
a. Identify: Subject: I Verb: Have taken to wife Object: my sometime sister

a. Paraphrase: I have taken to wife my sometimes sister.

B. Horatio: My lord, we will not. (1.5)

b. Identify: Subject: We Verb: will not Object: my lord

b. Paraphrase: We will not my lord.
 Academic
Vocabular Using Strategies to Paraphrase Whole Speeches
y Instructions: Read the following soliloquy from Act 1, Scene 5 and paraphrase
Paraphrase them. Follow these tips:
: To restate
a text in 1.Apply vocabulary pre-reading strategies.
your own
words—often
2. Read and number each section [from punctuation mark to punctuation mark]
to clarify 3. Track the pronoun with highlighter/pen
meaning
4. Identify Syntax and rearrange word order.
Pronouns

Words that
east won over the queen with his
take the seductive wit and gifts.
Ghost:
place of 1. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, That beast/ S (Subject)
nouns.
Common 2. With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts— With his wit and gifts,
pronouns: I, O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
you, he, she, So to seduce!— Seductive wit and gifts
it, they, 3. won to his shameful lust
them, these,
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen. won over the Queen / V (Verb)
those, we,
us, our, that, & O (Object)
his, hers,
yours, and
mine. O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
From me, whose love was of that dignity
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage, and to decline
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine.

But virtue, as it never will be moved,

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed
And prey on garbage.

But soft! Methinks I scent the morning air.

Brief let me be.

Sleeping within my orchard,

My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of my ears did pour
The leperous distilment, whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man
That swift as quicksilver it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body
And with a sudden vigor doth posset
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine.
And a most instant tetter barked about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand

Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,