Thou bible and pronouns original modern in king

Text	Thou and You in the Bible The King James translation of the Bible (1611) uses thou and you as singular and plural pronouns — reverting to the original function of the pronouns and ignoring the subtle shades of meaning they had in early modern speech. So the Biblical usage would have sounded archaic even to its original 17th-century readers. Because of its use in the Bible and in poetry, thou sounds stilted and old-fashioned to modern English speakers. But to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, thou was less stuffy or formal sounding than you.

Text

Thou and You in the Bible

The King James translation of the Bible (1611) uses thou and you as singular and plural pronouns — reverting to the original function of the pronouns and ignoring the subtle shades of meaning they had in early modern speech. So the Biblical usage would have sounded archaic even to its original 17th-century readers.

Because of its use in the Bible and in poetry, thou sounds stilted and old-fashioned to modern English speakers. But to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, thou was less stuffy or formal sounding than you.

Learn with these flashcards. Click next, previous, or up to navigate to more flashcards for this subject.