Note. In the oldest English his was both masculine and neuter. The neuter use lasted until the seventeenth century. Thus,—
That same eye whose bend doth awe the world
Did lose his lustre.—Shakspere, Julius Cæsar, i. 2. 123.
117. Thou, thy, thine, thee, and ye are old forms still found in poetry and the solemn style.
In ordinary prose, you, your, and yours are the only forms used for the second person, whether singular or plural. Yet you, even when denoting a single person, always takes the verb-forms that go with plural subjects. Thus,—
My friend, you were [NOT was] in error.
Hence you may best be regarded as always plural in form, but may be described as singular in sense when it stands for one person only.
Note. Members of the Society of Friends (commonly called Quakers) and of some other religious bodies use thee and thy in their ordinary conversation.
Ye was formerly the regular nominative plural, and you the objective; but the forms were afterwards confused. Ye has gone out of use except in poetry and the solemn style, and you is now the regular form for both nominative and objective.
Where an objective form ye is found printed instead of you (as often in Shakspere,—“A southwest blow on ye”), it represents an indistinct pronunciation of you rather than the old nominative ye. This indistinct sound may still be heard in rapid or careless speech (“I’ll tell yer the truth”).
Ye as an abbreviation for the (as in “ye old town”) has nothing to do with the pronoun ye. The y simply stands for the character þ (an old sign for th), and the abbreviation was pronounced the, never ye.