Today is the 445th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare. In honor of this occasion, today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Here are some ways to do it:
1. Instead of you, say thou. Instead of y’all, say thee.
2. Rhymed couplets are all the rage.
3. Men are Sirrah, ladies are Mistress, and your friends are all called Cousin.
4. Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous bunch-back’d toads.
5. Don’t waste time saying "it," just use the letter "t" (’tis, t’will, I’ll do’t).
6. Verse for lovers, prose for ruffians, songs for clowns.
7. When in doubt, add the letters "eth" to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth).
8. To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth or wherefore.
9. When wooing ladies: try comparing her to a summer’s day. If that fails, say "Get thee to a nunnery!"
10. When wooing lads: try dressing up like a man. If that fails, throw him in the Tower, banish his friends and claim the throne.
Forsooth, 'tis a pity methinks, if no one deigns to understandeth me. Link -via the Presurfer
"Thee" is singular, and is used when it is the object of the sentence. As in "I love thee".
The plural of "thou" is "ye"
then people back away slowly from you at work D:
Ye can be employed in two ways, firstly as the plural form of thou; so as to address a group of people, in such cases, it is sounded y?; and secondly as an alternate (in written contexts) to the word 'the'. However, this is an alteration in spelling only, and does not in any way necessitate pronouncing it in any manner other than that of the greater-spotted 'the'.
The reason for the word pronounced as 'the' being written as 'ye' arises due to Middle English's thorn character coming to be written in the same manner as the y. As a spelling, it was used as a seemingly handy abbreviation in handwritting to 'the' until the 19th century, and in printers' types during fifteenth and sixteenth century.
In Shakespeare's day "nunnery" was slang for a whore house.
So true! After weeks on Renaissance Faire and Shakespeare festivals, I once answered 'Aye', when asked if I wanted fries with my Big Mac.
'Tis a fair amount of f****ry most foul to be found here