Thou is a singular informal subjective case. Thou means you, however, it is analogous to the use of he and I in modern English. Thee is a singular objective case. It means (to) you.
The word thou (/ðaʊ/) is a second-person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in most contexts by the word you, although it remains in use in parts of Northern England and in Scots (/ðu/).
It was usual for you to be used by inferiors to superiors – such as children to parents, or servants to masters; and thou would be used in return. But thou was also used to express special intimacy, as when addressing God, and it was usual when the lower classes talked to each other.
In ordinary English, you is the only second person pronoun. It applies in both formal and informal situations, and is the same for both singular and plural. Thou is an archaic second person singular, informal. Some people use it when they are addressing God, because that was the custom in many churches for a long time.
'You' was invariably used for the plural and 'thou' for the singular. Furthermore, 'you' also denoted formality, respect and detachment, whereas 'thou' was informal and intimate.
Thee and Thou Were English's Informal Pronouns
Yup. You was formal, and thou was informal. In a book called The Personal Pronouns in the Germanic Languages, Stephen Howe says that in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, thou was generally used to address someone who was socially inferior or an intimate.
Thou, thee, thy, thine and ye are archaic personal pronouns which are generally articulated in the form of subject and object. Thou is a singular informal subjective case. Thou means you, however, it is analogous to the use of he and I in modern English. Thee is a singular objective case.
The choice of pronoun can thus also operate as a subtle means of showing respect or disrespect; using the pronouns in this way would have been natural and easy to English native speakers of the period. Shakespeare lived during the Early Modern English period, and thus used both YOU and THOU in his writing.
Thyself. 'Thyself' is an archaic pronoun meaning 'yourself' and it's used when talking to only one person. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself .
Thou is an old-fashioned, poetic, or religious word for 'you' when you are talking to only one person. It is used as the subject of a verb.
In early modern English, beginning in the late fifteenth century, thou, thee and thy were singular forms for the subjective, objective and possessive, and ye, you and your were plural. In the 1500s and 1600s, ye and then the thou / thee / thy forms, faded away, to be replaced by the all-purpose you.
By the seventeenth century, thee/thou was generally used to express familiarity, affection, or contempt, or to address one's social inferiors (Lass, 149). By 1800, both unmarked and marked uses of thee and thou, had become virtually obsolete in Standard English (Denison, 314).
The word thou, used in place of "you," is not used much in modern language. In fact, with its Biblical feeling, it's most often used in religious contexts. Otherwise, it might be used as slang for thousand.
Traditionally, use of thou and ye followed the T–V distinction, thou being the informal pronoun and ye, the plural, being used in its place in formal situations.
noun, plural thous, (as after a numeral) thou. Slang. one thousand dollars, pounds, etc.
Ye (/jiː/) is a second-person, plural, personal pronoun (nominative), spelled in Old English as "ge".
Etymology. From Middle English myself, meself, from Old English mē selfum and similar phrases, equivalent to me + self, later partly reinterpreted as my + self / -self.
'Thou' and 'Thee' were the singular archaic forms of the pronoun you.
Thou is used instead of you as the subject in a sentence: THOU ART A KNAVE! (You are no good!) Thee is used instead of you as the object in a sentence: I SHALT GIVE IT TO THEE. (I shall give it to you.) Thy is used instead of the word your: thy house, thy dog, thy book.
One theory is that Shakespeare wrote this light play purely as entertainment, something that would appeal to the average theater patron.
"To be, or not to be: that is the question." Perhaps the most famous of Shakespearean lines, the anguished Hamlet ponders the purpose of life and suicide in this profound soliloquy.
See also: “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest” (4.1.300), and “I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes” (5.2.101).
The commonest modern English greetings are not found in Shakespearean English: hello and hi did not enter the language until the 19th century; and although expressions with how are widespread, they are generally different in form.