I saw a Geico commercial with Elizabethan verb forms that bothered me because they were being misused:
Trick Number 1. Lookest over there!
Servant looks
Haha! Madest thou look!
So endest the trick!
How would a native speaker of Elizabethan English have phrased these sentences? Specifically, what verb forms would they have used if this scene were authentic?
Answer
The main problem with the commercial is that the second person indicative/interrogative lookest/madest thou/endest is used for all instances of the verb. Ironically, its use is not warranted in any of the times that it is used!
The first sentence should be imperative, the second sentence first person, and the third sentence third person. The irony is that the more correct they would be, the more they would need to change other words to preserve the archaic sound of the speech:
Trick Number 1: Look thou yonder!
Haha! I made thee to look!
So endeth the trick!
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