Thou, Thee, Thy, Thine & Ye: Meanings & Usage

 

In works of old, high-fantasy or historic fiction one may have chanced across the strange words: thou, thee, thy, thine and ye. Whilst most people understand the jist of the words (that they all refer to people), the way each is to be correctly (formally) deployed is somewhat more difficult.

In Old English, we had:

Thou = 2nd person singular subject (like du in German)

Ye = 2nd person plural subject (like ihr in German)

Thee = 2nd person singular object (like dich in German)

You = 2nd person plural object (like euch in German)

Thou = you when the subject (“Thou liketh writing.”)

Thee = you when the object (“Writing liketh thee.”)

Thy = your possessive form of you. (“Thy blade well serves thee.”)

Thine = your possessive form of you, typically used before a noun. (“Thine writing smacks of mastery.” or, “The writing is thine.” — thy own can be used in place of thine to similar effect)

Ye = you all | all of you used when referring to a group of people (“Ye fools!”)

In Middle English, we started using Ye/You as polite singular options

During Early Modern English, we got lazy and the distinction between Ye/You disappeared, and by 1600, Ye became restricted to religious & literary contexts. By 1700 Thou/Thee had already gone that way as well.

(From ‘The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language’ by David Crystal.)

For why have different words for subject & object, consider I & me, he & him, she & her, they & them. It’s only you that has the same pronoun for both subject & object, so that’s why we used to have ye & you. Other languages also have different words for singular you and plural you, so that’s why we used to have thou/thee for singular you.

So, now I say ‘I give this to you’, in olden times I’d have said ‘I give this to thee’ (sing) or ‘I give this to you’ (plural)

Now I say ‘you have a dog’. In olden times I’d have said ‘Ye have a dog’ or ‘Thou hast a dog’ (I those days we had different conjugations for ‘have’ for 2nd person sing and 3rd person sing as well - ‘he hath a dog’)