How to Write a Screenplay With Thee's and Thou's
If you are writing a period piece for a screenplay, thee's and thou's can enhance the story's appeal. Even a period piece set in a foreign culture can be made more appealing by using thee's and thou's -- assuming the characters wouldn't naturally speak English. As writer Caroline Rance, author of the historical mystery "Kill-Grief," says, thee's and thou's can help give your work the semblance of historical accuracy.
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Instructions
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Use thee's and thou's in informal situations. If you're familiar with Romance languages such as Spanish, French and Italian, you probably know that these languages have two words each for "you." Thee's and thou's work in almost exactly the same way, as informal versions of "you." "You" was initially the formal version of the second person, while "thee" and "thou" were reserved for informal situations during the mid-15th to 17th centuries.
For example, in your screenplay, two characters who are close to one another may refer to each other with thee's and thou's. The same applies to an elder character speaking to a younger character, or a boss to a subordinate. When a character is speaking to someone with whom he or she is not close or when the character is speaking to someone of higher rank, you should use "you."
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Avoid thee's and thou's when referring to more than one person. As with the second person in modern Romance languages, there is a second characteristic distinguishing thee's and thou's from you's besides informal versus formal usage. Thee's and thou's should only be used in the singular form -- i.e., when referring to one person. "You" is the plural form of the second person, so while it can be used to refer to one person in a formal situation, it's also employed to refer to more than one person, even in informal situations. Think of the modern equivalent of saying "you guys" or "you all"; "you" alone used to be all you needed to refer to more than one person.
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Distinguish the usages of thee and thou properly. There are two versions of this antiquated informal, singular version of "you" because "thee" is the objective form and "thou" is the subjective form. (Even "you" used to have a second version, "ye," that was used in a similar fashion to "thou," but "ye" went out of fashion even before "thou" and "thee.") For a modern equivalent, consider that "she" is the subjective form of the feminine singular third person and "her" is the objective form.
A subjective pronoun stands as the subject of a sentence or clause. An objective form receives an action and cannot stand on its own. For example, you might write, "She gave a present to me" versus "I gave a present to her." When using thee's and thou's, write similarly. "Thou gavest [gave] a present to me" and "I gave a present to thee."
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Tips & Warnings
Thee's and thou's have their own verb conjugation no longer in use in modern English. To write a screenplay that's even more accurate to period dialogue, you should employ the proper verb conjugation with thee's and thou's.
Third person singular (he/she/it) also had its own form of verb conjugation. If you're employing thee's and thou's in your screenplay, you may want to include the proper archaic conjugation for the third person as well.
If this period screenplay is your first screenplay and you're sending it out unsolicited, you may decrease your chances of making a successful sale. Demonstrate your ability to write an intriguing contemporary story first, and later you can attempt to write in period dialogue.
Remember that a contemporary audience can't easily understand a period piece written to complete historical language accuracy. Adding thee's and thou's may be a good enough way to convey that your screenplay is a period piece without confusing the modern viewer.
References
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