I’ve been learning to use thee and thou correctly, and I’ve reached the point of understanding where I can no longer relate to you ignoramuses well enough to tell what this meme is supposed to mean. This text reads as nonsense to Me.
For any curious, basically “I” is to “Me” as “Thou” is to “Thee”.
English used to differentiate singular and plural 2nd person pronouns. “Thou” was the singular 2nd person, and “Ye” was the plural 2nd person (it seems backwards but I swear that’s how it originally was, e.g. the biblical phrase “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”)
“Thee” and “You” were the object versions for these pronouns:
“[I/Thou/We/Ye] give [me/thee/us/you].”
Like French (tu/vous), it became considered polite in English to address singular people using the plural 2nd person, to the extent that the singular version fell out of use entirely. And then on top of that, English stopped differentiating between subject/object forms of the pronoun, with “You” subsuming all 2nd person pronouns.
So the meme is using it wrong, because both would be “thou” as subjects, and that’s before you get into the fact that English at the time also used different verb endings depending on person and plurality.
I’ve been learning to use thee and thou correctly, and I’ve reached the point of understanding where I can no longer relate to you ignoramuses well enough to tell what this meme is supposed to mean. This text reads as nonsense to Me.
'Tis such a beautiful day that
thou wilt not wear undergarments
in case thou meetest John in the meadow
Better?
Yeah that would be way more readable
For any curious, basically “I” is to “Me” as “Thou” is to “Thee”.
English used to differentiate singular and plural 2nd person pronouns. “Thou” was the singular 2nd person, and “Ye” was the plural 2nd person (it seems backwards but I swear that’s how it originally was, e.g. the biblical phrase “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”)
“Thee” and “You” were the object versions for these pronouns:
Like French (tu/vous), it became considered polite in English to address singular people using the plural 2nd person, to the extent that the singular version fell out of use entirely. And then on top of that, English stopped differentiating between subject/object forms of the pronoun, with “You” subsuming all 2nd person pronouns.
So the meme is using it wrong, because both would be “thou” as subjects, and that’s before you get into the fact that English at the time also used different verb endings depending on person and plurality.
And anyone who complains about singular they will not be getting singular you from Me.
It reads thus to thee, making plight on thine eyes / Albeit, for yours truly, thus readeth quite fine