Speaking “Old-Fashionedly”

A Sympathetic Take on “Thou,” “Thee,” “Thy,” and “Thine”

At lunch yesterday my five-year-old stated his intention to henceforth “speak old-fashionedly.” He explained that this meant saying “thy,” “thou,” and “Behold!” a lot. 

I quickly realized that, although he’s familiar with the words “thy” and “thou” from hymns in church, he didn’t quite know how to use them correctly. But he was eager to learn the proper usage. 

While I did my best to explain that you use “thou” for subjects of sentences (so the person performing the action) and “thee” for objects (the object of the action), I realized that I couldn’t remember the rules for “thy” and “thine.” And that I could certainly use some expert grammar advice to help explain archaic pronouns better!

Sadly, The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) does not give guidance about archaic pronouns. (A search for “thou” in the online version of CMOS mainly yielded lines from Milton and Shakespeare as examples of how to cite poetry.)

But I was almost certain archaic pronouns were discussed in another prized grammar book of mine, Preparing for Usefulness, the volume for eighth grade in Rod & Staff’s Building Christian English series. This was the Old Order Mennonite curriculum my mom used for my sister and me.

Sure enough, lesson 69, Personal Pronouns, says, “In the King James Bible, the archaic forms thou and ye are used as second person pronouns in the nominative case [“case” refers to how a pronoun is used in the sentence, and “nominative” means the subject of the sentence or related uses like predicate nominative that I won’t get into now]. Thou is singular and ye is plural.”

Example (all examples are from hymns): “Thou art the King of Israel, Thou David’s royal son . . .”

Example: “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, / Weak and wounded, sick and sore . . .”

Further, “the archaic form thee is used in the King James Bible as the second person singular pronoun in the objective case [the object of the action performed, or of a preposition, or some other uses].”

Example: “I rose, went forth, and followed thee.”

Finally, “the archaic forms thy and thine are used in the King James Bible as second person singular pronouns in the possessive case [i.e., signifying possession]. Thy is used before consonant sounds, and thine is used before vowel sounds.”

Example: “Then in a nobler, sweeter song / I’ll sing thy pow’r to save.”

Example: “By thine own eternal spirit / rule in all our hearts alone; / by thine all sufficient merit, / raise us to thy glorious throne.”

It may not seem particularly important for a twenty-first century copyeditor—or really anyone who speaks or uses English today—to know how to use archaic pronouns. People would give you strange looks if you asked, “Wilt thou tell me how to find the bread aisle?” at the grocery store.

But given their prevalence in hymns and prayers, including many that are still very common today, and given that an awareness of past usage makes understanding and reading primary historical sources much easier, I do believe in the value of knowing archaic pronouns, for both devotional and educational reasons.

Outside of quotations, I don’t encounter archaic pronouns in my copyediting work—but I still consider them as having an honored although limited role in the English language. They remind us that language evolves, which is often fine. I don’t mind using “you”; it’s easier for small children to say than “thou,” for one thing! But while the change from “thou” to “you” is a language shift that I don’t really lament, I want to keep the memory of “thou” and its counterparts alive. 

For today’s English speakers, the function of archaic pronouns is mainly to evoke a more exalted register. It’s nice to have a set of pronouns that, due to their association with hymns and prayers, help to focus the mind on worshipping. (I do acknowledge that some people find the use of “thee” and “thou” in hymns to be fusty and distracting, and therefore prefer more contemporary usage in worship songs.)

If you want to know more about the history of why we stopped using “thou”—and how its meaning and usage changed—this article from Merriam-Webster is great. 

The five-year-old’s foray into using “thou” didn’t last long. When he got up from his nap yesterday afternoon, he said he no longer intended to only speak “old-fashionedly.” But we’ll still be sure to keep some “pleasingly anachronistic” (in the words of Merriam-Webster) “thees” and “thous” around here, getting them out every now and then to dust them off. 

If you can think of a hymn that includes “thou,” “thee,” “thy,” “thine,” “thyself,” and “ye”—all the second-person archaic personal pronouns—please comment below. 

Beating through the thicket of English, without pruning archaic pronouns, 

Rebekah Slonim