• JackbyDev
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    22 hours 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.

    • Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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      6 hours 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.

      • JackbyDev
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        3 hours ago

        But we’re back to plural, they said thou is singular.

        • Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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          2 hours 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
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            56 minutes 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.

    • silasmariner
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      7 hours ago

      Yeah but that’s because you see it in archaic contexts. How do you feel about ‘thou art tall’?

            • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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              38 minutes ago

              To convey uncertainty, because the dictionary classification of the word was a bit of a mouthful, and I was only 90% certain that I was interpreting it correctly.