Pronouns

ACT IVITY READING

Go to your activity book to complete the retired words matching task (see page 118).

PERFORMING

Divide into pairs and try this improvisation task. In this scenario, one person is trying to order a meal at a fast-food restaurant. The customer is speaking in Shakespearean English and the person working at the cash register cannot understand what they are trying to order. If you are playing the customer, think about what retired Shakespearean words might be good to use, as well as any other words or phrases you’ve learned so far. The fast-food worker should try to remain calm but will become increasingly frustrated. Shakespeare’s Grammar Pronouns A pronoun is a part of speech that replaces a noun in a sentence (see page 276 for more on pronouns). When Shakespeare was writing his plays, there were more pronouns in speech than we have today – for example, he regularly uses ‘thy’, ‘thine’, ‘thee’ and ‘thou’. There are different types of pronouns, depending on what part of a sentence they appear in.

Pronoun = subject of the sentence Pronoun = object of the sentence Pronoun = possessive determiner Pronoun = possessive

Modern

English You You Your Yours

You are a potato. Potato likes you. Your potato is mouldy. It is not my potato, it’s yours.

Shakespeare’s

English Thou Thee Thy Thine

Thou art a potato. Potato liketh thee. Thy potato is mouldy.

It’s not my potato, it’s thine. READING Go to your activity book to complete the tasks on pronouns (see pages 118–119). ACT IVITY ©The Educational Company of Ireland