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hadst

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An archaic second-person singular past tense form of "have," equivalent to modern "you had," frequently found in classic verse.

Detailed Definition
Hadst is an archaic second-person past tense form of have. It appears in older poetry and scripture-like diction, helping the poem sound formal and old-fashioned.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Far better hadst thou proved” uses hadst, the archaic second-person singular past form of have: “you had”; Shakespeare often uses thou and hast or hadst to mark intimate, elevated, or historical speech; “Hadst thou stayed, the storm had passed” shows the form in a conditional sentence; A modern historical poem may use hadst sparingly to give a voice an antique register without making every line difficult to understand
Additional Notes
“Hadst” is an archaic verb form that is uncommon in modern English.; Found in the poem, Revenge by Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Also Known As
thou hadst you had thou didst you did
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