The Grammar of Shakespeare

Shakespeare spoke Early Modern English. All’s well that end’s well. As dead as a doornail Love is blind Vanish into thin air The language that Shakespeare used we refer to as “Early Modern English.” It is a derivative of the modern English we use today and actually Shakespeare had a significant role in developing modern English as we know it today. You ran into a list of phrases during your Webquest that were actually coined by Shakespeare, right? Well, the creative license that poets took during the Renaissance allowed them to create this inventive language within their prose and Shakespeare was a leading figure in that movement. Because how does language change? You and I pick up new words from other cultures and societies and integrate variations of these words into our own language, such as we did with many of Shakespeare’s inventive words and phrases. So even today modern English is constantly changing. But modern English and Early Modern English are still pretty similar, so what’s the problem?

Pronouns “Thou art a villain.” You are a villain. Subject Object Possessive Early Modern Thou Thee Thy/Thine Thyself Modern You Yours Yourself “Thou art a villain.” You are a villain. “Come, let me clutch thee.” Come, let me clutch you. “What is thy name?” What is your name? The problem is that there are several elements of Early Modern English that we just don’t use anymore, such as the pronouns they used. For instance, When “you” is used as a singular subject in a sentence, it becomes “thou” – “Thou art a villain.” When “you” is used as an object in a sentence, it becomes “thee” – “Come, let me clutch thee.” When “your” is used as a possessive pronoun, it becomes “thy” – “What is thy name?”

Verb Conjugations Typically added to the end of verbs, particularly those in 2nd person, are –EST and –ST. “Thou growest tall.” You grow tall. “Dost thou know the time?” Do you know the time? -ETH and -TH are also added to the end of some verbs. “He hath honoured me.” He has honored me. “Dost thou speaketh? Do you speak? The verb “are” changes to “art.”

Here, There, and Where “Whither goest thou?” To where do you go? To here Thither To there Whither To where “Whither goest thou?” To where do you go? “O, hither and thither.” O, here and there. Hence From here Thence From there Whence From where “Whence came you?” From where did you come?

Sentence Inversion In its most basic form, Modern English sentences follow this structure: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) John caught the ball. However, Shakespeare commonly used SOV and OSV inversion: Subject-Object-Verb or Object-Subject-Verb To heighten his language and for the purposes of fluidity in his poetry, Shakespeare inverted the typical sentence structure we use. Instead of Subject, Verb, and Object, his sentences were structured as Subject, Object, Verb or Object, Subec. You might remember that Yoda from Star Wars also inverts his sentences in this way. John the ball caught. The ball John caught.