# I'm up for reviving thou **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 17, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776 "2008-07-17T01:24:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/1 "2008-07-17T01:24:58Z")
Let’s face it, we need different words for singular and plural you. “Y’all” seems to work as a plural you in these parts, but “thou” sounds much cooler. Is anyone with me? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/2 "2008-07-17T01:27:57Z")
Nay. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/3 "2008-07-17T01:36:49Z")
I’m with you! ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/4 "2008-07-17T01:42:02Z")
Wouldn’t that be “thee”? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/5 "2008-07-17T01:54:52Z")
[QUOTE=Gukumatz] Wouldn’t that be “thee”? [/QUOTE] No, the plurals would be “Ye,” “You,” “Your” and “Yours.” ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/6 "2008-07-17T02:17:32Z")
I think an English T-V distinction would be fun. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/7 "2008-07-17T02:27:29Z")
I dunno,\* “Holier than Y’all” \*has a nice ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/8 "2008-07-17T02:30:33Z")
“Y’all” is so evocative, and instantly recognizable. “Thee” and “thou” and all Ththat have a lot of baggage. I say, aprés **Miller** , “nay x 2”. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/9 "2008-07-17T02:58:08Z")
How about we use thou for singular and y’all for plural and ditch you altogether? That’ll avoid confusion. What do y’all say? ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/10 "2008-07-17T03:00:49Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] No, the plurals would be “Ye,” “You,” “Your” and “Yours.” [/QUOTE] But **Anaamika** was the first to agree with me, therefore she (or he) was with me alone, singular. Thou should know this. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/11 "2008-07-17T03:19:00Z")
[QUOTE=snailboy] But **Anaamika** was the first to agree with me, therefore she (or he) was with me alone, singular. Thou should know this. [/QUOTE] She, please. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/12 "2008-07-17T09:33:19Z")
[QUOTE=snailboy] But **Anaamika** was the first to agree with me, therefore she (or he) was with me alone, singular. Thou should know this. [/QUOTE] Shouldst, please. English is so darn sloppy about conjugation, we might as well start the fight-back here. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/13 "2008-07-17T12:06:54Z")
So we ditched the old singular (thou), and replaced it with the old plural (you), but then now we have the same word for singular and plural (you), so folks say something else for the plural (y’all), but that’s no good, so _let’s replace the new plural with the old singular!_ Yes, it makes wonderful sense. Let’s do it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/14 "2008-07-17T13:31:32Z")
Absolutely not. One of English’s advantages is that there is no difference between the formal and informal 2nd person pronouns. In other languages - French, German, Spanish, and many others - which pronoun you choose to address another person shows your station in contrast to theirs. Parent to child. Owner to pet. Boss to worker. Social superior to social inferior. The loss of “thou” made the English language infinitely more democratic, and I like it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/15 "2008-07-17T14:21:29Z")
Seriously, though, it won’t work. As others have said, you really need a word for “all of you”. Which I don’t understand why English doesn’t have one anyway. **phouka** , in Hindi there are three forms of address - to a superior/parent, to an equal, and to a younger or a child. Though my parents like many others always used the formal version with me, so i would learn to use the formal version with others. i do like “thou” in the language of love, though, and would love to use it in a romantic sense. I think he would just look at me funny, though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/16 "2008-07-17T14:32:59Z")
[QUOTE=Ruken] So we ditched the old singular (thou), and replaced it with the old plural (you), but then now we have the same word for singular and plural (you), so folks say something else for the plural (y’all), but that’s no good, so _let’s replace the new plural with the old singular!_ Yes, it makes wonderful sense. Let’s do it 🙂 [/QUOTE] I thought “you” wasn’t so much the old plural as the old “formal” form, which is the same in both singular and plural (like “vous” in French). And I was right (kind of) - “you” was the accusative case of [“ye”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_%28pronoun%29), which is both plural and formal singular. Ye would talk to me, and I would talk to you. Up in Yorkshire, of course, some people still use “tha” (thou) and “thee” (the accusative form; see _I Predict a Riot_ by the Kaiser Chiefs). I like it, but it would sound horribly affected if I said it. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/17 "2008-07-17T15:52:41Z")
[QUOTE=snailboy] **I’m up for reviving thou** [/QUOTE] And I’m up for being revived. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/18 "2008-07-17T23:12:16Z")
[QUOTE=Ruken] So we ditched the old singular (thou), and replaced it with the old plural (you), but then now we have the same word for singular and plural (you), so folks say something else for the plural (y’all), but that’s no good, so _let’s replace the new plural with the old singular!_ Yes, it makes wonderful sense. Let’s do it 🙂 [/QUOTE] Who said we were going to make thou plural? I was proposing it would take over the singular again. [QUOTE=Colophon] I thought “you” wasn’t so much the old plural as the old “formal” form, which is the same in both singular and plural (like “vous” in French). And I was right (kind of) - “you” was the accusative case of [“ye”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_%28pronoun%29), which is both plural and formal singular. Ye would talk to me, and I would talk to you. [/QUOTE] From what I remember reading, it depended on the time and place. Sometimes you was plural, sometimes it was formal, and sometimes it was either. However, I said in my original post that I was interested in distinguishing singular and plural, not formal and informal. The latter is just unnecessary complication if you ask me. The former is necessary enough that we have regional slang taking care of the purpose. ---
**Author:** ![wuglife](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a5b964/32.png) [@wuglife](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wuglife)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/19 "2012-04-07T15:55:18Z")
If posting in old threads here is taboo, I apologize. I would like to see “thou” come back too. I have been studying other IE languages for about a year now, and I am jealous of the T-V distinction; how you can address people intimately with just the use of a pronoun. I like my native language a lot, but the more I study the others, the more it seems over-simplified and like the nuances and the fun parts have been cut out, like the fun parts are cut out of a condensed book or the TV version of a film. So that’s why I’m dragging this thread up from the depths. (This is my first post, incidentally). ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776/20 "2012-04-07T19:23:06Z")
wuglife, welcome to the boards. It’s generally frowned upon to bring back old threads from the dead. We call these threads “zombies” and it’s something a lot of people hate. But you won’t get in any sort of trouble 🙂 We hope you like it here! Ye, you, thee and thou… too confusing for me! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-up-for-reviving-thou/456776.md?page=2)