← Sancta Clara PressReading the older English
The Modern-Spelling edition updates the spelling but keeps the translators’ own English: the old pronouns, the -eth/-est verb endings, and a handful of words that have since fallen out of everyday use. None of it is hard once it is familiar; this short guide gives the plain modern equivalents. (Harder or misleading words are clarified right where they occur: the faintly underlined words in the text, which you can turn off under ⋯ → Clarifications.)
Older forms
- thou
- you (one person)
- thee
- you (object, “to thee”)
- thy / thine
- your / yours
- ye
- you (more than one)
- art
- are
- hast / hath
- have / has
- doth
- does
- saith
- says
- wilt / shalt
- will / shall
- wouldst / couldst / shouldst
- would / could / should
- -eth (loveth, raineth)
- -s (loves, rains)
- -est (lovest, knowest)
- (you) love, know
Common words
- whence
- from where; from which
- thence
- from there
- hence
- from here; therefore
- whither
- to where
- thither
- to there
- hither
- here; to here
- wherefore
- why; and therefore
- thereof
- of it; of that
- therein
- in it; in that
- thereby
- by that means
- whereof
- of which
- wherein
- in which
- whereupon
- upon which; at which
- peradventure
- perhaps; it may be
- betimes
- early; in good time
- fain
- gladly; willingly
- durst
- dared
- anon
- soon; at once
- nigh
- near
- save / saving
- except
- howbeit
- however; nevertheless
- forasmuch as
- since; because
- twain
- two
- suffer
- allow; permit (“suffer the children”)
- want
- lack; be without
- wax
- grow; become
- wont
- accustomed; in the habit of
A note on the names
Names follow the Latin Vulgate: Moyses (Moses), Noe (Noah), Henoch (Enoch), Elias (Elijah), Isaias (Isaiah), the forms long used in the Church’s liturgy and kept by the translators. See About this edition for why.
A word kept its old form for a reason, often it tracks the Latin more closely than a modern paraphrase would. See About this edition for why.