Any native speaker of the English language knows “ye” (not “yeah”, which signifies “yes” or “yep”) is the second person plural pronoun “you”, and “thou” is the archaic usage. Have you ever wondered about the differences among them, and how, when and why you should make use of them in English? Similarly, the word “ye” is the archaic use of “you”, and not used in our modern time any longer. Therefore, the neoteric English word which denotes the second person plural is “you”.
However, this distinction is still reserved in some languages such as Turkish (Sen and Siz), French (Tu and Vous), Spanish (Tu and USted), Russian (Ты and Вы), German (Du and Sie) and so on.
In Turkish, for instance, the words “sen” and “siz” may be accepted as signals of sincerity, politeness, or even superiority. “How are you?” in English maybe translated into Turkish in four different ways: 1) “Nasılsın?” (sincere, impolite or humbling depending on the context), 2) “Nasılsınız?” (polite, respectful, formal), 3) “Sen nasılsın?” (emphatic sincere, impolite or humbling depending on the context), and 4) “Siz nasılsınız?” (emphatic polite, respectful, or formal). When someone asks you a question as in 2) and when you respond like “İyiyim, ya sen nasılsın?” (I am well, and how are you?) – as in 3), you may think you are sincere, but the other person may think that you are rude and tactless.
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. Benjanin Franklin
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. Benjanin Franklin
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