Ye (pronoun)

After the Norman Conquest, which marks the beginning of the French vocabulary influence that characterised the Middle English period, the singular was gradually replaced by the plural as the form of address for a superior and later for an equal.

The practice of matching singular and plural forms with informal and formal connotations, respectively, is called the T–V distinction, and in English it is largely due to the influence of French.

Eventually, this was generalised, as in French, to address any social superior or stranger with a plural pronoun, which was believed to be more polite.

In French, tu was eventually considered either intimate or condescending (and, to a stranger, potentially insulting), while the plural form vous was reserved and formal.

In Early Modern English, ye functioned as both an informal plural and formal singular second-person nominative pronoun.