Shakespearean English Translator

Turn everyday English into the theatrical English of Shakespeare’s plays for party invitations, cards, school projects or a laugh. The translator swaps you for thou or thee depending on where it stands, your for thy or thine, adds the old verb endings (thou art, thou knowest, he hath, she loveth), and replaces modern words with period ones: hello becomes good morrow, before becomes ere, please becomes prithee. Optional flourishes such as “Forsooth!” and “Verily!” open some sentences.

How to use this tool

1. Type or paste modern English.
2. Leave flourishes on for extra drama, or turn them off for a cleaner result.
3. Change the variation number to get a different mix of flourishes.
4. Copy the Shakespearean text.

Formula

you → thou (subject) or thee (after a verb or preposition) · are → art and do → dost before or after thou · he/she + verb-s → verb-eth

Thou is the old informal subject form of you and thee the object form, so “I love you” becomes “I love thee” while “you are” becomes “thou art”. Verbs that go with thou take -st or -est (knowest, lovest), and a third-person verb after he, she, it or a name takes -eth (knoweth, cometh); has, does and says become hath, doth and saith. Your becomes thine before a vowel sound (thine eyes) and thy elsewhere. About 120 words and phrases are swapped from a fixed list, and flourishes come from a seeded random choice, so the same variation number always gives the same text.

Example

Without flourishes, the sample “Hello, how are you? I think you are my best friend. Please wait here, I will be back soon.” becomes “Good morrow, how art thou? Methinks thou art my best friend. Prithee tarry here, I will be back anon.”