shouldst

Thee must, biblically

Shouldst is an archaic second-person singular form of should, used with thou: Thou shouldst not bear false witness.

Like other -st verb endings, it survives mainly in biblical texts, historical fiction, and deliberately old-fashioned speech.

archaic

thou

Archaic second-person pronoun

theeSecond-person object, antiquated
thyOld possessive pronoun
thineYours, archaically

hast · doth · dost · wilt · art · ye · whence · whither · thither · wherefore

obligation

ought

Expresses duty or obligation

dutyRequired moral task
mustObligatory requirement
boundSecured or destined

obliged · required · beholden · necessity · incumbent · moral · proper · expected · fitting · righteous

literary

Shakespeare

Elizabethan dramatist and poet

ElizabethanOf late 1500s England
sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
verseMetered poetic passage

poetry · Spenser · Marlowe · Renaissance · Jacobean · dramatic · soliloquy · iambic · pentameter · King James

Categories

Archaismsthee, thou, thy, thine, ye
Biblical Englishthou, thee, thy, thine, ye
archaic Englishthou, thee, thy, thine, ye
archaic verbsdost, doth, hast, hath, wilt
archaic wordsthee, thou, thy, thine, tis
Shakespearean wordsforsooth, hither, thither, wherefore, prithee

Opposites

temporal register

shouldstshould

Expresses obligation or expectation

gotta · ought to · must · need to · gonna

modal force (obligation vs. prohibition)

shouldstmust not

Forbidden to do

need not · cannot

modal force

shouldstmust not

Forbidden to do

may · mightest · canst · thou shalt not

Phrases

should beExpected or proper state
should havePast obligation unfulfilled
what should I doQuery seeking guidance
you should talkIronic dismissal of criticism
should have known

Family

Familiarity: Top 1,000,000
Profile: Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Everyday, not technical · Rated G