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Is Ye a subject, or an object, or either?

And would it go before a verb, or after a verb, or either?

For example

Seek Ye

A) is 'Seek Ye' valid. B) if so, is Ye the subject, as in, you(plural) should seek ____ Or is it the object, as in Seek you(plural) , as in, seek yourselves

Ye Seek

A) Is 'Ye Seek' valid? B) you(plural) seek, or should seek, but without specifying what. Without specifying the object.

Is "Yee seek the table", the same as "seek ye, the table"?

I'm confused about subject and object and the position of ye before or after the verb.. i'm interested in knowing all the possibilities. which are valid and invalid and what they mean.

1 Answer 1

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Ye or ȝe is or was a nominative second person plural, so it was used in Middle and Early Modern English to denote subjects and subject complements. So seek ye should mean "you should seek", and ye seek "you seek". As to whether the word seek is used in the proper way and form in those example, I do not know.

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  • Informal second person, the plural complement of "thou"? Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 22:42
  • @SpencerSimpson: There was no formality distinction in the second-person plural pronouns. Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 0:25
  • @sumelic did he say there was? Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 10:33

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