by A. Davies, R. Lipton, D. Richoux et al.
(Grammar)"Thou", "thee", "thine" and "thy" are pronouns that have dropped out of the main dialects of Modern English. During the period of Early Modern English (~1470-1700), they formed the Second Person Singular of the language, and were standardized by the time of the King James Bible as shown below.
| Subjective | Objective | Possessive | Present Tense Verb Ending |
|
| 1st Pers. Sing. | I | me | my/mine[1] | none |
| 2nd Pers. Sing. | thou | thee | thy/thine[1] | -est |
| 3rd Pers. Sing. | he/she/it | him/her/it | his/her/its | -eth |
| 1st Pers. Plural | we | us | our | none |
| 2nd Pers. Plural | ye/you[2] | you | your | none |
| 3rd Pers. Plural | they | them | their | none |
| [1]: "Mine" and "thine" were used before "h" and vowels, much as "an" was. | ||||
| [2]: "You" had replaced "ye" for most plural uses by 1600. | ||||
Here are the conjugations from that era of two common irregular verbs:
| to be - Present tense | to have - Present tense |
| I am | I have |
| thou art | thou hast |
| he/she/it is | he/she/it hath |
| we are | we have |
| ye are | ye have |
| they are | they have |
The Second Person Singular forms were gradually replaced by the use of the Second Person Plural (the "you" form) as it was considered to be more polite.
Several groups continue to use these pronouns today as part of their daily speech (although with different grammar), including residents of Yorkshire, Cumbria, the East Midlands, and some rural areas of Western England. Some Quakers also used their Plain Speech with "thee" and "thy" until the middle of the 20th century.
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