Early Modern English

====Tense and number====
During the Early Modern period, the verb inflections became simplified as they evolved towards their modern forms:
*The third-person singular present lost its alternate inflections: ''-eth'' and ''-th'' became obsolete, and ''-s'' survived. (Both forms can be seen together in Shakespeare: "With her, that ''hateth'' thee and ''hates'' us all".)<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|page=163}}</ref>
*The plural present form became uninflected. Present plurals had been marked with ''-en'' and singulars with ''-th'' or ''-s'' (''-th'' and ''-s'' survived the longest, especially with the singular use of ''is'', ''hath'' and ''doth'').<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|pages=165–66}}</ref> Marked present plurals were rare throughout the Early Modern period and ''-en'' was probably used only as a stylistic affectation to indicate rural or old-fashioned speech.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Charles Laurence Barber|title=Early Modern English|year=1997|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-0835-5|page=171}}</ref>
*The second-person singular indicative was marked in both the present and past tenses with ''-st'' or ''-est'' (for example, in the past tense, ''walkedst'' or ''gav'st'').<ref>{{Cite book|author=Charles Laurence Barber|title=Early Modern English|year=1997|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-0835-5|page=165}}</ref> Since the indicative past was not and still is not otherwise marked for person or number,<ref>{{Cite book|author=Charles Laurence Barber|title=Early Modern English|year=1997|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-0835-5|page=172}}</ref> the loss of ''[[thou]]'' made the past subjunctive indistinguishable from the indicative past for all verbs except ''to be''.