The English pronoun historically paired with plural “ye” was “thou.”
In older English, “thou” was the second-person singular pronoun, used when addressing one person, while “ye” was the plural form. The related object, possessive, and reflexive forms were “thee,” “thy” or “thine,” and “thyself.” This system resembles distinctions preserved in languages such as French, German, and Spanish.
Over time, English speakers increasingly used “you,” originally the object form associated with “ye,” for both singular and plural address. By the seventeenth century, “thou” had largely disappeared from standard everyday English, although it remained in regional dialects, religious language, poetry, and literary writing.
A common modern misunderstanding is that “thou” was always more formal than “you.” Historically, it was generally singular and could signal familiarity, intimacy, or contempt, depending on the relationship. In the King James Bible, published in 1611, “thou” and “ye” primarily preserved the singular-plural distinction found in the source languages rather than marking special reverence.