Grammar is the set of patterns speakers use to form words and combine them into phrases and sentences. Grammatical change happens when those patterns shift over time. A word ending can fall out of use, an object can come to occupy a different place in a clause, or a helping verb can become the usual way to ask a question.
A dated manuscript, letter, or play can show that a particular form was in use by the time the text was written or copied. Comparing many texts helps researchers see which patterns became more or less frequent. The surviving record is uneven, and a prayer or a play can follow conventions of its own. Anthony Kroch’s study of historical grammar.
A short timeline of English grammar
The dates are approximate. Scholars use different boundaries, and a pattern can persist across several periods or change at different rates in different places. Philip Durkin’s dating of the periods.
| Period | Approximate dates | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Old English | Earliest records to 1150 | Noun endings mark roles in a sentence. |
| Middle English | 1150–1500 | Many endings recede. Object placement still varies. |
| Early Modern English | 1500–1750 | You spreads as a singular form, and questions with helping do grow more common. |
| Late Modern English | 1750 onward | Grammar books record and promote conventions for formal writing. |
| Present-day English | Recent decades | Varieties around the world use forms such as y’all and youse to address groups. |
Old English used more word endings
The Lord’s Prayer in the 11th-century Bath Old English Gospels opens Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum
. A close modern rendering is Our Father, you who are in the heavens. Digitized Bath Old English Gospels, Corpus Christi College MS 140. Theodora Bynon’s transcription of the West Saxon prayer.
Look at heofonum. Its ending -um marks both plural number and dative case, the form used here after the preposition on to express location. The modern heavens has a plural -s and takes the same form in in the heavens and the heavens opened. English still marks some differences in grammatical role, as in we arrived and they saw us. University of Göttingen guide to Old English datives.
Object placement varied in Middle English
An object can name the person or thing an action affects. In Hide the letter, the letter is the object of hide. It tells you what to hide.
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s late-14th-century Tale of Melibee, Dame Prudence quotes advice that begins If so be that thou ne mayst nat thyn owene conseil hyde
. A modern rendering is If you can’t hide your own plans. Chaucer puts the object thyn owene conseil before hyde. In the modern clause, your own plans follows hide. Harvard’s edition of The Tale of Melibee, line 1147.
Many noun endings were already receding in Middle English, and object-after-verb order became more usual over time. The two changes took place over centuries. Today, the order of an ordinary statement helps identify who did what. The fox saw the hound and The hound saw the fox describe different events. The historical evidence for object placement.
Printing spread written forms during the Renaissance
William Caxton set up a press at Westminster around 1476 and published an early edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Printing let publishers circulate many copies with the same wording, giving some written conventions wider exposure. Manuscripts show that word order was changing before printing arrived in England. Forms continued to vary across regions and kinds of text. Merton College’s copy of Caxton’s Canterbury Tales.
Pronouns and questions changed in Early Modern English
Shakespeare’s Macbeth, first printed in the 1623 First Folio, preserves several patterns that coexisted in the period. The following examples use the Folger edition. Folger Shakespeare Library on the first printing.
You became the usual form of address
Macbeth tells a single figure, Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo
. In modern English, that reads You are too much like Banquo’s ghost. Here, thou is the singular subject and art is the verb form that goes with it. Macbeth addresses the witches as you a few lines later. Folger’s Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1.
By Shakespeare’s time, speakers could also use you for one person. The choice between thou and you could convey familiarity or social distance, depending on the speakers and the situation. You eventually became usual for both singular and plural address in standard writing. Thou survived in religious language and some regional varieties. Terry Walker’s study of trials, depositions, and plays. Katie Wales on uses of thou.
Helping do spread in questions
In the same play, Lennox asks Sent he to Macduff?
Today we might ask Did he send a messenger to Macduff? Later, Macbeth asks Why do you show me this?
Lennox puts the main verb sent before the subject. Macbeth puts the helping verb do before the subject and keeps show after it. The two patterns could coexist. Folger’s Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 6. Act 4, Scene 1.
Today, do-support supplies do, does, or did for many questions and negative statements, such as He did not send word. In Did he send word?, did carries past tense and send takes its base form. When a sentence already has a helping verb such as can, it can move in front of the subject, as in Can he send word? Historical texts show helping do spreading at different times in different kinds of sentences. Kroch’s analysis of the rise of do.
Late Modern English brought more published grammar advice
From the 18th century onward, grammars and dictionaries increasingly set out conventions for formal writing. Their authors could record an everyday pattern and still prefer a different one for a formal audience. Philip Durkin on Late Modern English.
What a grammar book can tell us
In A Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762), Robert Lowth describes the use of prepositions at the end of clauses in conversation and familiar writing. He favors putting the preposition earlier in elevated writing. The difference is easy to hear in the person I spoke to and the person to whom I spoke. Lowth’s discussion records both an existing pattern and a preference for a particular setting. Robert Lowth’s grammar, pages 127–128.
English today has many varieties
As English spread through colonization and migration, speakers used it alongside other languages and developed local varieties. That history helps explain why there are grammatical patterns associated with different places and communities today. Edgar W. Schneider and Sarah Buschfeld on the spread of English.
Speakers in many communities use you for one person or a group. Varieties with a distinct plural form can make the audience explicit with words such as y’all or youse. For instance, Are y’all ready? can address a group directly. Electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English on plural address.
A form can carry a social meaning as well as a grammatical one. Y’all can signal a connection to Southern U.S. English, and it is also used beyond the South. In edited writing, conventions can vary by institution and audience. Research on the spread of y’all.
How to spot a change in a historical text
Write a present-day version of the line and compare the two versions word by word. Look for an ending that carries information, an object that moves, a different pronoun, or a helping verb. To see how widely a pattern was used, compare texts from different places, dates, and kinds of writing.
Try six short comparisons
- What two pieces of grammatical information does -um carry in heofonum?
- Put Chaucer’s thyn owene conseil hyde into present-day English and identify the object.
- Rewrite Thou art ready in everyday present-day English. Which two words change?
- Turn She heard the news into a yes-or-no question. Which word carries past tense?
- Which wording would Lowth have preferred in elevated writing, the person I spoke to or the person to whom I spoke? What does his account say about the other form?
- If two question patterns occur in the same play, what can you conclude from the play alone? What would help you judge how common each was?
Show answers and explanations
- Plural number and dative case. The ending identifies a plural noun in the form used after the preposition in this location phrase.
- Hide your own plans. Your own plans is the object. It follows hide in the modern version and precedes the verb in Chaucer’s phrase.
- You are ready. The subject thou becomes you, and art becomes are to agree with it.
- Did she hear the news? Did carries past tense, and hear takes its base form.
- The person to whom I spoke. Lowth preferred the earlier preposition in elevated writing. He also recognized clause-final prepositions in conversation and familiar writing.
- Both patterns were available to the playwright. Compare a larger sample of dated plays, letters, and other texts to see where each form occurs and how often.
Related grammar guides
- See what happens to word order when a direct question becomes part of a sentence. Reported Questions in English.
- See how the position of a preposition can change within a clause that describes a noun. Relative Clauses in English.
- Compare formal and everyday choices in Ending Sentences with Prepositions.
