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# couldest

verb, past tense of can, with thou

«couldest» in the English dictionary: Early Modern English — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Early Modern English

### Meaning

Was able to, with "thou" as the subject. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/C/couldest/#m1)

### Then and now

No longer used; today we say "could" with "you."

### Examples

- "Thou wishest thou couldest go to the ball, is it not so?" (The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault) [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/C/couldest/#x1)

### Note

Today: could.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «couldest» in the Early Modern English dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/C/couldest/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«couldest» in the Early Modern English dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/emode/w/couldest.html) on Mova free.