• JackbyDev@programming.dev
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    5 days ago

    “Thou is tall” sounds weird though.

    you already use a grammatically plural pronoun to refer to individuals all the time: the word “you”. It’s always “you are tall”,

    This made my brain short circuit lol. Can’t believe I never noticed.

      • njaard@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        No, that’s incorrect.

        It’s “Thou are tall” or “Thou art tall

        Nominative   Oblique  Possessive 
        Thou         Thee     Thy/Thine* 
        I            Me       My/Mine*
        He           Him      His
        She          Her      Her/Hers**
        You          You      Your/Yours**
        

        * Used as an object (It is thine) or historically, when the following word started in the vowel (Thine eyes sparkle like diamonds, Mine ears ache)

        ** Used as an object (it is hers)

    • Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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      4 days ago

      That’s because “is” is the third person conjugation of Be, not the second. Of course it sounds weird.

      “Thou are”, and the actually correct “thou art” both feel much more natural.

        • Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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          4 days ago

          The conjugation of Be, “is” is not used in the second person (you, be it singular or plural) any more than “am” is (“am” is first person singular form.) regardless of the plurality (or lack thereof) in the subject.

          The correct Be conjugations for second person subjects are “art” (2nd, singular, archaic) and “are”.

          • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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            4 days ago

            So is thou/you plural or singular? I’m very confused. I’m not a grammar person lol. This conversation began because someone said thou is singular.

            • Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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              4 days ago

              Do you remember your conjugation tables from Spanish or French class?

              English has them too, but the modern ones are much smaller than most (all?) other European languages.

              • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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                4 days ago

                I think because it’s so small for English and because I’m a native speaker it’s all just second nature and I don’t really know the technicalities. Conjugating verbs in Spanish is one of my most frustrating areas of learning lol.