In standard English, You is both singular and plural; it always takes a verb form that originally marked the word as plural, such as You are. This was not always so. Early Modern English . .   Expand    Wikipedia

In standard English, You is both singular and plural; it always takes a verb form that originally marked the word as plural, such as You are. This was not always so. Early Modern English distinguished between the plural You and the singular thou. This distinction was lost in modern English due to the importation from France of a Romance linguistic feature which is commonly called the T-V distinction. This distinction made the plural forms more respectful and deferential; they were used to address strangers and social superiors. This distinction ultimately led to familiar thou becoming obsolete in standard English, although this did not happen in other languages such as French. Ironically, because thou is now seen primarily in literary sources such as King James Bible (often directed to God, who is traditionally addressed in the familiar) or Shakespeare (often in dramatic dialogs, e.g. "Wherefore art thou Romeo"), many modern anglophones erroneously perceive it as more formal, rather than familiar (case in point: in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader addresses the Emperor saying, "What is thy bidding, my master").

Comments

News

Chat Room

Modded XBox Controllers