Gaming Blog – The Shockwave Spark

If still alive today William Shakespeare would be 445 years old! With that being said, I was surprised that the United States doesn’t really do anything to commemorate one of the greatest writers that ever lived! Some cities are trying to change that calling April 23 “Talk like Shakespeare Day” . I just happen to think that this is an amazing idea and that we should all participate in twisting our talk and text for a day by taking our tongues’ back to the Renaissance.

This might sound a little easier than it actually is so I came up with 5 tips on how to sound more like Shakespeare! This way you can impress your friends with your fancy English and help keep the memory of the world’s favorite playwright alive. Share these with your friends and see how well you would fit in during the mid 1600’s.

1. Don’t say the word you, try saying thou. You can also say the word thee instead of saying y’all.
Ex: Thou should goeth to Shockwave.com and playeth many games! If thee plays games thou shall surly have fun!

2. Shakespeare spoke with dignity and some what of a poetic style often using rhymes in his work. Try adding a poetic feel to your words to make them more meaningful.
Ex: Shockwave.com is full of games, where high scores lead to online fame! Where no 2 days are quite the same and where thou logs in by user name!

3. If you get stuck and can’t think of what to say, simply add “eth” to the end of verbs! . Try it with some of the words you use every day! (see below for propper use)
Ex: Bob playeth, Bob scoreth, Bob wineth!

4. Use shortcuts where you can! There is no need for the word “it,” just use the letter “t” and fill it in appropriately.
Ex: Tis a glorious day to playeth games on Shockwave!

5. Finally to improving your vocabulary will surly help you sound even more long winded! I recommend playing TextTwist2. This new game will surly help your prose and will give you plenty to talk about.

If you follow my tips, and check out our game, thou will surly speaketh with the sweet sensual sound of Shakespeare himself. So the question can no longer be, “to be or not to be” but today “will you be or won’t you be” Talking like Shakespeare himself? I just dare thee to try!

UPDATE:
It has come to my attention here at the Spark that while attempting to have some fun with Shakespeare, I may have posted some information that may have been just a little off. I wanted to update this post with a couple of insights from some of our readers that may help your Shakespeare Speak in the future! We always appreciate feedback and I want to thank the people who responded to this post. We do this for you and we want to do it right!

*Shakespeare did not write in “Old English”. When you are speaking like Shakespeare, you are using “Modern English“. Even though it doesn’t sound like the English we speak today, if he was writing in old English, we wouldn’t have been able to understand him at all

When using Shakespeare’s modern English, be sure to watch out for a couple of things:
To sound like Shakespeare himself, try adding “st” onto appropriate words:
Ex: When thou playest and speakest, thou wilt sound as if the Bard himself.

*The ending “-eth” is only added to the third person singular present tense.
This makes my previous example incorrect. You should use it like this:

Ex: Ben playeth games on Shockwave.com.

Thanks again!