Literatura de los Pueblos de Habla Inglesa 1 – 2019 1

SHAKESPEARE´S LANGUAGE

Here are a number of words which are seldom used today but Shakespeare used them in his plays,
and they appear often.

 Anon – “at once”

 Ay – “yes”
 Cousin,coz – “any close relative”
 E’er – “ever”
 Ere – “before”
 ‘gainst – “against”
 ‘gins – “begins”
 Hence – “from this place”
 Hither – “to this place”
 Methinks – “it seems to me”
 Mine – (sometimes) “my”
 Morrow – “tomorrow”
 Ne’er – “never”
 Owe – (sometimes) “own”
 Presently – “at once”
 Pr’ythee – “please” (short for “I pray thee”)
 Quoth – “said”
 Sooth – “truth”
 Still – (sometimes) “always”
 ‘t – “it”; eg: under´t
 Th’ – “the”
 Thee – “you” (singular) obj
 Thence – “from that place”
 Thereafter – “after that”
 Thither – “to that place”
 Thou – “you” (singular) subj
 We, us, our – “I, me, my”
 Whence – “from which place”
 Wherefore – “for which reason”
 Whiles – “whilst”
 Whither – “to which place”
 Ye – you (plural)
 “of” is sometimes shortened to o’, and is, was to ‘s.