wouldst
Shakespearean "you'd" equivalent
Wouldst is an archaic second-person singular form of "would," used with "thou": Wouldst thou have me believe such nonsense?
It appears in the King James Bible, Shakespeare, and other early modern English texts.
Like other -st endings (dost, hast, canst), it survives mainly in quotations and deliberate archaism.
Archaic second-person pronoun
- theeSecond-person object, antiquated
- thyOld possessive pronoun
- thineYours, archaically
- hastArchaic form of have
dost · art · wilt · shalt · canst · shouldst · couldst · didst
Of late 1500s England
- GlobeFamous Elizabethan theatre
- soliloquyDramatic speech to oneself
- iambicVerse rhythm type
- pentameterFive-foot poetic line
Hamlet · Macbeth · Othello · Romeo · Juliet · Falstaff · quarto · folio
thou
Archaic second-person pronoun
hast · dost · art · wilt · shalt · canst · shouldst · couldst · didst · knowest
Elizabethan
Of late 1500s England
pentameter · Hamlet · Macbeth · Othello · Romeo · Juliet · Falstaff · quarto · folio · groundlings
wish
Yearned-for outcome
- desireIntense wanting
- requestFormal act of seeking
- supplicationHumble plea for help
entreaty · beseech · implore · petition · plea · longing · yearning · aspiration · hope · fain
verse
Metered poetic passage
stanza · ode · ballad · elegy · couplet · quatrain · lyric · diction · scansion · apostrophe
- would haveContrary-to-fact auxiliary
- would likePolite expression of wanting
- would ratherExpresses a preference
- I wouldConditional agreement phrase
- would you mindCourteous inquiry preamble
- would you ratherHypothetical preference query