Shakespearean English

Getting to know the language

 Word Order
• A common simple sentence in Modern English
usually follows the following pattern:
Subject + verb + object
John caught the ball
• In Shakespearean times conventional
sentences were structured as:
Subject + object + verb
John the ball caught
 Some Language: thee and thou= you
"How art thou", never "how are thee"
• What wouldst thou have of me?
• I will go with thee.
• Thou art a rogue.

When the next word begins with a vowel, use

thine for thy:
• I like not thy face but I applaud thine effort.
 Some common terms
Instead Of... Say...
• Okay= Very well, 'Tis done, As you will
• Wow!= Zounds (God's wounds) What ho!
• Excuse me= Pray pardon, By your leave
• Please= Prithee (I pray thee), By your leave
• Thank you =I thank thee, My thanks, God
reward thee
• No= Nay, I shall not. Nay, it is not so.
 Another point to remember
Hello is not actually a period greeting but an
exclamation of surprise.
You can say instead:
• Good day
• Good morrow
• God ye good den (or just, Good den)
• God save you, sweet mistress
• How now, Sir Toby Belch
 Most Importantly!
• Wherefore means Why.

In the famous speech from Act II Juliet wants

to know why Romeo is a Montague, not where
he is!
 Reading with the apostrophe
• Shakespeare used the apostrophe mainly for
omission.
• We are used to seeing the apostrophe near
the middle or end of a word:
• Ta'en is short for taken.
• Shakespeare also liked using proclitic
apostrophes (which just means that the
apostrophe indicates that letters at the
beginning of the word are missing):
• ‘twas, ‘twere, ‘tis