Can you correct this “old English” quote?
- Note, although this language is "old," the term "Old English" refers to a much older version of the language (or, arguably, an earlier language altogether).
- A common misperception is that ca 17th-century usage always used "thee" and never used "you." If you find yourself transported back to Elizabethan England, you could certainly say "When you think you are done" with no anachronism (and be more polite too, since you is the more formal pronoun!).
- The main issues with the quote are that it doesn't decline "thee/thou" or conjugate "think" or "hast" appropriately. "Thou" is the subject of the sentence; "thee" would be the right form if it were an object. "Thinketh" would be a third-person form, not second-person. And "have" is the appropriate form for "you," but not for "thou." A corrected version would be:
When thou think’st [or thinkest] thou art done, thou hast just begun.
I believe that this quote has been put together by a fraud with little knowledge of old English grammar.
In addition to any other corrections, thee are should be thou art; thee have should be thou hast; thee thinketh should be thou thinkest. These are all part of old English pronoun declensions and verb conjugations.
Longman
thou hast: old use a way of saying ‘you have’thou art: old-fashioned biblical a phrase meaning ‘you are’
Hymnary
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me;
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me; ...
So the better version would be:
When thou thinkest thou art done, thou hast just begun