Chapter 11: Quick-Reference Appendix
This appendix collects the tables and lists you'll want closest at hand once you've read the full book. It isn't meant to teach anything new — see the earlier chapters for explanation and examples of everything here.
11.1 Pronouns
| Nominative | Objective | Possessive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | I | me | mine |
| you (familiar, singular) | thou | thee | thine |
| he / she / it | he, she, it | him, her, it | his, hers, its |
| we | we | us | ours |
| you (plural, or general) | ye / you | you | yours |
| they | they | them | theirs |
Reserve thou/thee/thine for Quaker characters, English dialect speakers, or rare moments of real intimacy. See Chapter 3. Pronouns and the Everyday Verbs: Pronouns and the Everyday Verbs.
11.2 Forms of Address at a Glance
| Situation | Period form |
|---|---|
| Man of the gentry or middling sort, formal | Mr. + surname |
| Man holding a militia colonelcy | Colonel + surname |
| Officeholder, by office | Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Mr. Attorney |
| Married or widowed woman of standing | Mrs. + surname (or Mistress) |
| Unmarried woman under ~50, gentry/middling | Miss + surname |
| Unmarried woman over ~50 | Mistress + surname |
| Gentleman or middling man, general | Sir |
| Gentlewoman, any age or marital status | Madam |
| Relative | brother, sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, father, mother |
| Warm address to a stranger or acquaintance | friend |
Full discussion and caveats — including how this system intersected with enslavement and free status — are in Chapter 2. Meetings, Partings, and Forms of Address: Meetings, Partings, and Forms of Address.
11.3 Quick Substitutes for Modern Phrases
Reach for these whenever a distinctly modern phrase is about to slip out.
| Instead of... | Try... |
|---|---|
| "Are you okay?" | "Are you well?" / "Do you not feel well?" |
| "I have to / I need to" | "I must" / "I am obliged to" |
| "I've got to go." | "I must be gone." |
| "No problem." | "It is of no consequence." / "Think nothing of it." |
| "Great! / Awesome!" | "Excellent!" / "Well done!" |
| "Why? / How come?" | "Why, pray?" / "For what reason?" |
| "I'll check." | "I shall see to it." |
| "Check this out." | "Observe this." / "Mark this." |
| "What's your opinion?" | "What are your sentiments?" / "What say you?" |
| "Because" (casual) | "For" |
| "But" (casual, mid-sentence) | "Only" |
A handful of very modern concepts genuinely have no natural eighteenth-century phrasing — there's no period way to say "check your email" because there was no email to check. For these, the better move is an in-character deflection ("I know not what strange thing you speak of") rather than a forced, anachronistic-sounding workaround. See Chapter 10. Building Your Character's Voice: Building Your Character's Voice.
11.4 Words Whose Meanings Have Shifted
Some of the trickiest words to use convincingly are the ones that still exist today but meant something different — sometimes almost the opposite — in the eighteenth century. Using a word in its modern sense when a guest expects the period one (or vice versa) can create real confusion, so these are worth knowing cold.
| Word | Eighteenth-century sense | Modern sense |
|---|---|---|
| awful | inspiring awe or reverence | very bad |
| enthusiastic | fanatically religious, possessed by a cause | eagerly interested |
| nice | fussy, exacting, precise | pleasant, agreeable |
| artificial | skillfully made, artful | fake, synthetic |
| disinterested | impartial, having no personal stake | uninterested, indifferent (a modern confusion many still object to) |
| condescension | a virtue: a superior's gracious willingness to treat with an inferior | a patronizing, superior attitude |
| luxurious | given over to sensual pleasure or excess | expensive, opulent |
| stout | strong, sturdy, brave | overweight |
| temper | self-command, evenness of disposition | a display of anger |
| fabulous | mythical, invented, untrue | wonderful |
| sophisticated | adulterated, tampered with (of wine or goods) | worldly, refined |
| explode | to hoot someone off the stage, to discredit noisily | to burst violently |
| want | to lack something | to desire something |
| occasional | made for a particular occasion | happening now and then |
When in doubt about a word that seems too modern to say — "interesting," "nice," "awful" — check whether it existed in 1770 with a different meaning before assuming it's off-limits entirely. Many surprisingly common modern words are period-accurate as long as you (and, more importantly, your character) mean the eighteenth-century sense.
11.5 A Short Stock of Proverbs and Interjections
Keep a few of each memorized cold, so they surface without conscious effort in conversation. See Chapter 7. Proverbs, Exclamations, and Genteel Profanity: Proverbs, Exclamations, and Genteel Profanity for the full list and more context.
Proverbs: Birds of a feather flock together. • Actions speak louder than words. • Make hay while the sun shines. • Necessity is the mother of invention. • It never rains but it pours.
Interjections: Ah. • Fie! • Pish! • Pshaw! • Good lack! • Lord!
Fillers: Well, ... • Why, ... • Pray, ... • In truth, ...
11.6 Feature-Sheet Template
Use this blank template — described fully in Chapter 10. Building Your Character's Voice: Building Your Character's Voice — to build a personal cheat sheet for each character you portray:
- Opening greeting and reply: ________________________________
- One recurring grammatical habit (verb form, negative, pronoun): ________________________________
- One vocabulary habit (intensifier, connector, or filler): ________________________________
- One proverb or idiom held in reserve: ________________________________
- One interjection or mild oath: ________________________________