PyroPeter wrote:
For a bit of logical completeness: Formulations such as "Did they not care, ..." might be correct in a strict sense but they would sound very wrong to most speakers, as though it were a question. "Cared they not, ..." might also be correct but it sounds archaic and unnatural (even though I would prefer it if we could drop the silly use of the auxiliary verb "do"... and re-introduce "thou" to match "du" and "tu" while we're at it).
"Cared thou not, thou would have abstained." ;)
Thanks for this comprehensive reply. According to wikipedia, "thou" is the 2nd person singular pronoun, and the plural form would be "Cared ye not, ye would have abstained."
"Thou" is indeed the 2nd person singular pronoun, as is its counterpart "du" in Germanic languages and "tu" in Romance languages, which is why I mentioned them. I never implied otherwise.