Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Verbs with Thou and Thee

Verbs with Thou and Thee Verbs with Thou and Thee Verbs with Thou and Thee By Maeve Maddox The pronouns thou and thee were replaced by you in standard English a very long time ago, but the old forms still hold interest for modern speakers. A DWT reader wrote to me recently about a pastor who encourages his parishioners to use the â€Å"thou† forms in prayer. Many Bible readers still prefer the King James translation with its thous and thees to more modern ones. Apart from a religious context, the old forms crop up in advertising and entertainment, often with the wrong verb forms, possibly for intended comic effect. For example, an insurance ad on television features an agent dressed in paper armor made from insurance policies. He exchanges a few words with another agent. Here are some of their attempts at what the ad writer characterizes as â€Å"broken Old English.† It’s not Old English, but it is very broken. I doth declare that thou have brought overmany discounts to thine customers! Thou cometh and we thy saveth! We doth offer so many discounts, we have some to spare. The second person singular forms fell out of standard use as Middle English passed into Early Modern English. Without going into too much detail, or trying to account for every variation, I’ll illustrate some of the uses of the forms thou, thee, thy, and thine. Thou art my friend. (subject) I love thee. (object) Is this thy dog? (possessive adjective) No, I thought it was thine. (possessive pronoun) Thine was also used as a possessive adjective in front of a noun beginning with a vowel: Is he thine enemy? Verbs used with the subject form thou usually ended in -st. For example, What dost thou still in bed, thou lazy lout Can I go out with my friends, Mother? No, thou canst not. The -th ending doesn’t go with thou or, as in the insurance ad, with we or any other pronoun. The -th ending signals third person: What doth he still in bed? He doth what he liketh best; he sleepeth. The use of thou still exist in some English dialects, although in altered forms, such as tha. The use of a second person singular in the â€Å"plain speech† of the Society of Friends (Quakers) continued into modern times. Among some Quakers, the archaic verb endings dropped away and the subject form thou was superseded by the object form thee, much as the object form you replaced the subject form ye in standard English. If you ever decide you want to use archaic pronouns and verb endings in an ad or a historical novel, you might want to review the forms. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Synonyms for â€Å"Meeting†Comma Before ButShow, Don't Tell

Monday, March 2, 2020

Battle of Messines in World War I

Battle of Messines in World War I Battle of Messines - Conflict Dates: The Battle of Messines took place from June 7 to 14, 1917, during World War I (1914-1918). Armies Commanders: British General Sir Herbert PlumerLieutenant General Sir Alexander GodleyLieutenant General Sir Alexander Hamilton-GordonLieutenant General Sir Thomas Morland212,000 men (12 divisions) Germans General Sixt von Armin126,000 men (5 divisions) Battle of Messines - Background: In the late spring of 1917, with the French offensive along the Aisne bogging down, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, sought a way to relieve pressure on his ally. Having conducted an offensive in the Arras sector of the lines in April and early May, Haig turned to General Sir Herbert Plumer who commanded British forces around Ypres. Since early 1916, Plumer had been developing plans for an attack on Messines Ridge southeast of the town. The capture of the ridge would remove a salient in the British lines as well as give them control of the highest ground in the area. Battle of Messines - Preparations: Authorizing Plumer to move forward with an assault on the ridge, Haig began to view the attack as a prelude to a much larger offensive in the Ypres area. A meticulous planner, Plumer had been preparing to take ridge for over a year and his engineers had dug twenty-one mines under the German lines. Constructed 80-120 feet below the surface, the British mines were dug in the face of intense German counter-mining activities. Once completed, they were packed with 455 tonnes of ammonal explosives. Battle of Messines - Dispositions: Opposing Plumers Second Army was General Sixt von Armins Fourth Army which consisted of five divisions arrayed to provide an elastic defense along the length of their line. For the assault, Plumer intended to send forward the three corps of his army with Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Morlands X Corps in the north, Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordons IX Corps in the center, and Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Godleys II ANZAC Corps in the south. Each corps was to make the attack with three divisions, with a fourth kept in reserve. Battle of Messines - Taking the Ridge: Plumer commenced his preliminary bombardment on May 21 with 2,300 guns and 300 heavy mortars pounding the German lines. The firing ended at 2:50 AM on June 7. As quiet settled over the lines, the Germans raced to their defensive position believing that an attack was forthcoming. At 3:10 AM, Plumer ordered nineteen of the mines detonated. Destroying much of the German front lines, the resulting explosions killed around 10,000 soldiers and were heard as far away as London. Moving forward behind a creeping barrage with tank support, Plumers men assaulted all three sides of the salient. Making rapid gains, they collected large numbers of dazed German prisoners and achieved their first set of objectives within three hours. In the center and south, British troops captured the villages of Wytschaete and Messines. Only in the north was the advance slightly delayed due to the need to cross the Ypres-Comines canal. By 10:00 AM, the Second Army had reached its goals for the first phase of the assault. Briefly pausing, Plumer advanced forty artillery batteries and his reserve divisions. Renewing the attack at 3:00 PM, his troops secured their second phase objectives within an hour. Having accomplished the offensives objectives, Plumers men consolidated their position. The next morning, the first German counterattacks began around 11:00 AM. Though the British had little time to prepare new defensive lines, they were able to repel the German assaults with relative ease. General von Armin continued attacks until June 14, though many were badly disrupted by British artillery fire. Battle of Messine - Aftermath: A stunning success, Plumers attack at Messines was nearly flawless in its execution and resulted in relatively few casualties by World War I standards. In the fighting, British forces incurred 23,749 casualties, while the Germans suffered around 25,000. It was one of the few times in the war when the defenders took heavier losses than the attackers. Plumers victory at Messines succeeded in achieving its goals, but led Haig to over-inflate his expectations for the subsequent Passchendaele offensive which was launched in the area that July. Selected Sources First World War: Battle of MessinesHistory of War: Battle of Messines