Timeline for When can I use "thy" instead of "your"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 25, 2017 at 17:59 | comment | added | Michael Lorton | @FrancisDavey -- written Cantonese has two words, 你 and 您, but they do get pronounced the same way, nei. Anyway, like most other East Asians, the Chinese try to avoid using second-person pronouns at all when speaking to a higher-status person, using a title or periphrasis instead. My Korean wife scolds me with I address her mother as 너는 (neoneun, "you"), insisting I say 어머님 (eomeonim, the respectful word for "mother"). | |
| Mar 25, 2017 at 8:15 | comment | added | Francis Davey | I don't think modern spoken Cantonese has such a distinction either. | |
| Jun 23, 2015 at 15:40 | comment | added | Michael Lorton | @Yellow -- that is the point: essentially every language has some way of encoding the social relationship between the speaker and the spoken-to, except English. I like to think that is why English has done as well as it has. | |
| Jun 23, 2015 at 9:23 | comment | added | Yellow | This is nitpicking, but: technically speaking, Spanish has also a thou equivalent, 'vos', which has exactly the same archaic and Biblical connotation and usage as does the English thou. | |
| S Jun 22, 2015 at 21:08 | history | suggested | TankorSmash | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
removed edit marker.
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| Jun 22, 2015 at 20:47 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Jun 22, 2015 at 21:08 | |||||
| Jun 22, 2015 at 20:35 | comment | added | Michael Lorton | @BenKovitz -- something every English Learner should learn is that native English speakers, American ones at least, tend use humor somewhat unprovokedly. I have added an explanation for very beginning learners. | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 20:21 | history | edited | Michael Lorton | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 423 characters in body
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| Jun 22, 2015 at 17:14 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Jun 22, 2015 at 17:31 | |||||
| Jun 22, 2015 at 14:22 | comment | added | Michael Lorton | @PJvG - Only this. | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 14:03 | comment | added | user151841 | Here's a chart showing the frequency of 'thee' and 'thy' in books from 1800 to 2000. books.google.com/ngrams/… | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 6:58 | comment | added | PJvG | Why did you mention the year 1780 specifically? Do you have any source for that? | |
| Jun 22, 2015 at 2:16 | history | answered | Michael Lorton | CC BY-SA 3.0 |