Friday, October 03, 2003, 00:41 GMT
If people don't know the difference between "I" and "me", then, I guess, there's not much hope for them but for the majority of English speakers, those who can handle basic stuff like "I" verses "me", the words "thee", "thou", "thy" and "thine" shouldn't be too hard ... if you know the simple rule.
The simple rule is that these "th-" words match the "m-" words that rhyme leaving "thou" to match with "I". Here's what I mean:
1st person possesive object "mine" matches 2nd person possesive object "thine",
1st person possesive adjective "my" matches 2nd person possesive adjective "thy" and
1st person object "me" matches 2nd person object "thee" leaving
1st person subject "I" to match 2nd person subject "thou".
The "I", "me", etc. are all singular same with the others in O.E. but M.E. is a different story but I've already gone on about that.
Any native speaker with a half-decent intellect and a half-decent education should have picked up on this even though these words may be long extinct in most dialects.
What they might be forgiven for not knowing might be the history of the distinction between the "thou", "thy", etc. words and the "you", "your" ones; the way verds conjugate with these words and how "thine" (or "mine") can be used in place of "thy" (or "my") if the following word starts with a vowel (or an unstressed syllable spelt with an initial "h").
The simple rule is that these "th-" words match the "m-" words that rhyme leaving "thou" to match with "I". Here's what I mean:
1st person possesive object "mine" matches 2nd person possesive object "thine",
1st person possesive adjective "my" matches 2nd person possesive adjective "thy" and
1st person object "me" matches 2nd person object "thee" leaving
1st person subject "I" to match 2nd person subject "thou".
The "I", "me", etc. are all singular same with the others in O.E. but M.E. is a different story but I've already gone on about that.
Any native speaker with a half-decent intellect and a half-decent education should have picked up on this even though these words may be long extinct in most dialects.
What they might be forgiven for not knowing might be the history of the distinction between the "thou", "thy", etc. words and the "you", "your" ones; the way verds conjugate with these words and how "thine" (or "mine") can be used in place of "thy" (or "my") if the following word starts with a vowel (or an unstressed syllable spelt with an initial "h").