Lorraine,

-est is a second person singular ending, used with the second singular pronoun "thou."  -eth is a third singular ending.  Neither is used in the plural, and both of them survived into Early Modern English and then died out largely by the 18th c., although they continued in some dialects.

In modern parodies of older Englishes, -eth tends to get used as a pseudo-archaism regardless of the person or number of the subject.  The language never used it in that way.

Herb
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lorraine Wallace
Sent: 2009-02-26 14:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Question

One of my students was wondering about the eth and est endings of verbs in archaic literature.  When is eth appropriate and when is est?  I have never thought of this question.  We came up with a possibility, but I wondered how the experts would explain this.

Thanks for your input.
Lorraine 

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