The English of a few hundred years ago was different in many ways from modern English – grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling have all changed greatly since Shakespeare’s time. Some of the most striking differences are in the way verbs are used. Older English had distinct second-person singular verb forms ending in –st, with a corresponding second-person singular pronoun thou (object form thee, possessive thy, thine).there were also third-person singular verb forms ending in –th, and ye could be used as a second-person plural pronoun.

Tell me what thou knowest.                             How can I help thee?

Where thy master goeth, there goest thou also.

Oh come, all ye faithful.

Older forms of be included second-person singular art and wert.

I fear thou art sick.

Wert thou at work today?

Questions and negatives were originally made without do; later, forms with and without do (including affirmative forms with do) were both common.

Came you by sea or by land?        

Be not afraid.

They know not what they do.

Then he did take my hand and kiss it.                 

Simple tenses were often used in cases where modern English has progressive forms.

We go not out today, for it raineth.

Subjunctives were more widely used than in modern English.

If she be here, then tell her I wait her pleasure.

Inversion was more common, and infinitives and past participle could come later in a clause than in modern English.

 Now are we lost indeed.

Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. (Shakespeare)

And she me caught in her arms long and small and therewithal so sweetly did me kiss and softly said’ Dear heart, how like you this?(Wyatt)

Some of these forms were still used in 19^th-century and 20^th –century literature (particularly poetry) long after they had died out of normal usage.

Modern writers of historical novels, films or plays often make their characters use some of these older forms in order to give a ‘period’ flavor to the language. And the forms also survive in certain contexts where tradition is especially valued – for example:

The language of religious services, pubic ceremonies and law. Some dialects, too, preserve forms which have vanished from the rest of the language-second-person singular pronouns (tha, thee etc) are still used by many people in Yorkshire.