Lesson 2
Having mastered Thou and Thee, we will now continue with Thy and Thine. The use of thy and thine can sometimes be confused and thy has also been known to be used instead of thou and thee. We shall now analyse them to see what the correct usage is.
Thy is the second person singular possessive adjective, corresponds to first person my and is the archaic form of your. Thine is the second singular possessive pronoun, corresponds to first person mine and is the archaic form of yours. As such, thy can only be used in front of a noun to express possession of it. Thine, on the other hand, stands alone just like mine (or yours). Thy and thine are generally used as my and mine or your and yours would be in a sentence.
For example:
"So, thy name is Legoboy?"
"Yay".
"Then, wouldst thou say that the name Legoboy is thine?"
"Yay".
"So, the name Martin isn't thine?".
"Nay".
"What's thy name again?"
"Legoboy, sir".
"And whose banana is this?"
"'tis thy banana".
"'tis mine?"
"'tis thine".
"Then, I'll just have to eat it".
Thy and thine are only used to express possession. Thy never takes the place of an a object or a subject in a sentence. So, the following sentence is badly written:
"Thy art supposed to wear shining armor and wield a glittering sword".
HOWEVER, the aforementioned rules do not cover all cases. There is an exception.
ATTENTION: When a noun starts with a vowel or a silent h, it takes thine instead of thy. Hence, one will say:
"Thine apple looketh very tasty. Can I have a bite?".
Exercises:
Are the following sentences written well or badly?
- We do not talk like thy so called âweirdoes'.
- Thine cat looketh very fine today.
- Can I have a bite of thy apple?
- Give me that apple of thy!
- Look at yourself! Thou dost not need thine apple
- What mine is thine. Except for apples.
- The apple wars have begun. And 'tis thy fault!
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