When we are speaking to others, what they understand is only partially influenced by our intended meaning. A large part of receiving information is subject to one's emotional state, attention to the details of our speech, current thoughts, ability to understand our words, and especially what the receiver expects us to be saying.
Thee and thou died as singular second person pronouns. They has arisen as the dual-edged sword of first person pronouns: both singular and plural... which is really the way we have always accidentally used it anyway, just with the wrong verb conjugation.
One of the principles that drives my curiosity is that the first and second (and third) thing I think is likely wrong. Driving past this insecurity into a confident stance of ignorance is hard. At the foundation is accepting my failures is using them as a springboard toward my next magnificent failure. When I am … Continue reading I am almost never right: a doctor admits how he thinks
Doctor O Thinks Thoughts 