Is "thou" the English equivalent of "Sie"?

Question

I've always wondered this. Yes, it means "you" but it must directly translate into a more formal "you," correct?

"thou" was the singular form in English, not the plural. Also related. — , Sep 14 '11 at 17:25
While originally thou was informal, it is now used almost exclusively in religion and has therefore taken on an air of formality. So nowadays ... it would probably be simplest to say that an English equivalent of Sie doesn't exist. Tolkien used thou to represent both intimacy and formality at different times in The Lord of the Rings. — TRiG, Aug 03 '14 at 21:16

score 14 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 14 '11 at 15:56

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Originally, "thou" was used if you were addressing a single person, whereas "you" was used for addressing more people. Thou was saved only for intimate or disrespectful uses. So really it was more like "thou" was the same as "du", and "you" was the same as "ihr."

_{Sources: Wikipedia's article about Thou}

edited Sep 14 '11 at 15:56

answered Sep 14 '11 at 15:27

KLee1

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score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 14 '11 at 16:21

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Thou, thee, thine= Du, dich, dein. You can almost see the resemblance.

answered Sep 14 '11 at 16:21

Tom Au

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I think, thou didst mean "Thou can almost see the resemblance." – musiKk Sep 14 '11 at 17:09
What I see here is a sound shift. early Old High German thou/thu → classical OHG dū, du (English thou, Icelandic þú : Low German dü, German du) – feeela Sep 14 '11 at 21:19
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@musiKk: Shouldn't that be "thou canst"? Which, again, has a strong resemblance to "du kannst". – Martin B Sep 23 '11 at 20:50

Is "thou" the English equivalent of "Sie"?

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