“English personal pronouns usually distinguish person as well as number, gender, and case, except in the second person, where we have only one pronoun form - ‘you’.”
Older English had “thou” for second person singluar, subjective case, “thee” for second person, objective case, and “ye” for second person plural, subjective case. “You” was for second person plural, objective case. The KJV uses these pronouns, of course, and that is one of my favorite arguments for the superiority of the KJV over modern translations (thanks, Dr. Waite). It gives you more information. My favorite example is John 3:7, where Jesus tells Nicodemus (“thee”) that all of the Jews (“ye”) must be born again. Modern English is the only Western language I’m aware of that doesn’t distinguish between singular and plural in the second person. The only modern “translation” I’ve seen that attempts to convey this additional information is the New World “Translation”, which of course has other problems which render it unusable!!
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NewSecond person pronouns in English
Older English had “thou” for second person singluar, subjective case, “thee” for second person, objective case, and “ye” for second person plural, subjective case. “You” was for second person plural, objective case. The KJV uses these pronouns, of course, and that is one of my favorite arguments for the superiority of the KJV over modern translations (thanks, Dr. Waite). It gives you more information. My favorite example is John 3:7, where Jesus tells Nicodemus (“thee”) that all of the Jews (“ye”) must be born again. Modern English is the only Western language I’m aware of that doesn’t distinguish between singular and plural in the second person. The only modern “translation” I’ve seen that attempts to convey this additional information is the New World “Translation”, which of course has other problems which render it unusable!!
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