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Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Whatever Happened to "Thou"?

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Mignon Fogarty, Inc.

Society & Culture, Education

4.52.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Where’d "thou" go? And will it ever make a comeback?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This week I was a guest on our newest Quick and Dirty Tips podcast, Curious State.

0:12.0

Talking about one of my favorite subjects, why we don't say THOW anymore.

0:17.2

And I got to discuss it in more detail than I've ever done before.

0:20.8

So we're playing it for you here today too.

0:23.3

But if you like the format, go check out the rest of the Curious State episodes and subscribe

0:27.7

to the show.

0:29.3

Doug describes himself as a perpetual fan of the peculiar.

0:33.6

And the tidbits you learn will make you the most interesting person at any dinner party.

0:42.4

Welcome to 13th Century France.

0:44.9

You're standing in the fashion capital of the world where wide sleeves and flowing dresses

0:50.0

adorn fair maidens and men sport tunics, tight legos, and would very much look like

0:55.7

elf shoes.

0:58.2

It's an age when eels were sometimes used as currency.

1:01.8

Jasting was all the rage and castles pierced the sky.

1:05.9

Medieval times were steeped in culture and clad in language that has since gone the way

1:10.7

of the dodo.

1:12.2

Words like THOW were part of everyday language, but today are defunct.

1:17.8

So what happened?

1:20.3

Often we don't know why language changes.

1:24.4

It's natural and normal and happens whether we like it or not, but with THOW we actually

1:30.3

know why.

1:32.0

That's been your own Fulgurty, better known by her millions of fans as Grammar Girl.

...

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