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EspañolOLD ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY
The 'morphology of the Old English language' is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more highly inflected. It more closely resembles modern German, which has over the centuries been more conservative than English.
Verbs in Old English are divided into strong or weak verbs. Strong verbs indicate tense by a change in the quality of a vowel, while weak verbs indicate tense by the addition of an ending.
Strong verbs use the Germanic form of conjugation known as ''ablaut''. In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to indicate the tense. Verbs like this persist in modern English, for example ''sing, sang, sung'' is a strong verb, as are ''swim, swam, swum'' and ''choose, chose, chosen''. The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending. In Old English, there were seven major classes of strong verb; each class has its own pattern of stem changes. Learning these is often a challenge for students of the language, though English speakers may see connections between the old verb classes and their modern forms.
The classes had the following distinguishing features to their infinitive stems:
The first preterite stem is used in the preterite tense, for the first and third persons singular. The second preterite stem is used for second person singular, and all persons in the plural (as well as the preterite subjunctive). Strong verbs also exhibit i-mutation of the stem in the second and third persons singular in the present tense.
The third class went through so many sound changes that it was barely recognisable as a single class. The first was a process called 'breaking'. Before, and + another consonant, <æ> turned into , and to . Also, before + another consonant, the same happened to <æ>, but remained unchanged (except before combination ).
The second sound-change to affect it was the influence of palatal sounds, , and . These turned anteceding and <æ> to and , respectively.
The third sound change turned to <i>, <æ> to , and to <u> before nasals.
Altogether, this split the third class into five sub-classes:
Regular strong verbs were all conjugated roughly the same, with the main differences being in the stem vowel. Thus ''stelan'' 'to steal' represents the strong verb conjugation paradigm.
Weak verbs are formed by adding dental (''t'' or ''d'') endings to the stem for the past and past-participle tenses. Some examples are ''love, loved'' or ''look, looked''.
Originally, the weak ending was used to form the preterite of informal, noun-derived verbs such as often emerge in conversation and which have no established system of stem-change. By nature, these verbs were almost always transitive, and even today, most weak verbs are transitive verbs formed in the same way. However, as English came into contact with non-Germanic languages, it invariably borrowed useful verbs which lacked established stem-change patterns. Rather than invent and standardize new classes or learn foreign conjugations, English speakers simply applied the weak ending to the foreign bases.
The linguistic trends of borrowing foreign verbs and verbalizing nouns have greatly increased the number of weak verbs over the last 1200 years. Some verbs that were originally strong (for example ''help, holp, holpen'') have become weak by analogy; most foreign verbs are adopted as weak verbs; and when verbs are made from nouns (for example "to scroll" or "to water") the resulting verb is weak. Additionally, conjugation of weak verbs is easier to teach, since there are fewer classes of variation. In combination, these factors have drastically increased the number of weak verbs, so that in modern English weak verbs are the most numerous and productive form (although occasionally a weak verb may turn into a strong verb through the process of analogy, such as ''sneak'' (originally only a noun), where ''snuck'' is an analogical formation rather than survivals from Old English).
There are three major classes of weak verbs in Old English. The first class displays i-mutation in the root, and the second class none. There is also a third class explained below.
Class-one verbs with short roots exhibit gemination of the final stem consonant in certain forms. With verbs in this appears as or , where <i> and are pronounced [j]. Geminated appears as , and that of appears as . Class one verbs may receive an epenthetic vowel before endings beginning in a consonant.
Where class-one verbs have gemination, class-two verbs have <i> or, which is a separate syllable pronounced [i]. All class-two verbs have an epenthetic vowel, which appears as or .
In the following table, three verbs are conjugated. ''Swebban'' 'to put to sleep' is a class one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel. '' 'to heal' is a class-one verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. ''Sīðian'' 'to journey' is a class-two verb.
During the Old English period the third class was significantly reduced; only four verbs belonged to this group: ''habban'' 'have', ''libban'' 'live', ''secgan'' 'say', and ''hycgan'' 'think'. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though they share some commonalities.
The preterite-present verbs are a class of verbs which have a present tense in the form of a strong preterite and a past tense like the past of a weak verb. These verbs derive from the subjunctive or optative use of preterite forms to refer to present or future time. For example, ''witan'', "to know" comes from a verb which originally meant "to have seen" (cf. OE 'wise' "manner, mode, appearance"; Latin 'videre' "to see" from the same root). The present singular is formed from the original singular preterite stem and the present plural from the original plural preterite stem. As a result of this history, the first-person singular and third-person singular are the same in the present.
Few preterite present appear in the Old English corpus, and some are not attested in all forms.
Additionally there is a further group of four verbs which are anomalous, the verbs "will", "do", "go" and "be". These four have their own conjugation schemes which differ significantly from all the other classes of verb. This is not especially unusual: "will", "do", "go", and "be" are the most commonly used verbs in the language, and are very important to the meaning of the sentences they are used in. Idiosyncratic patterns of inflection are much more common with important items of vocabulary than with rarely-used ones.
''Dōn'' 'to do', ''gān'' 'to go', and ''willan'' 'will' are conjugated alike:
The verb 'to be' is actually composed of three different stems:
The present forms of ''wesan'' are almost never used. The ''bēon'' forms are usually used in reference to future actions. The modern verb 'to be' takes its present indicative forms from ''sindon,'' its past indicative forms from ''wesan,'' its present subjunctive forms from ''bēon,'' its past subjunctive forms from ''wesan,'' and its imperative and particicple forms from ''bēon.''
Old English nouns were declined – that is, the ending of the noun changed to reflect its function in the sentence. There were five major cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and instrumental.
★ The nominative case indicated the subject of the sentence, for example ''se cyning'' means 'the king'. It was also used for direct address. Adjectives in the predicate (qualifying a noun on the other side of 'to be') were also in the nominative.
★ The accusative indicated the direct object of the sentence, for example ''Æþelbald lufode þone cyning'' means "Æþelbald loved the king", where Æþelbald is the subject and the king is the object. Already the accusative had begun to merge with the nominative; it was never distinguished in the plural, or in a neuter noun.
★ The genitive case indicated possession, for example the ''þæs cyninges scip'' is "the ship of the king" or "the king's ship". It also indicated partitive nouns.
★ The dative case indicated the indirect object of the sentence, for example ''hringas þæm cyninge'' means "rings for the king" or "rings to the king". There were also several verbs which took direct objects in the dative.
★ The instrumental case indicated an instrument used to achieve something, for example ''lifde sweorde'', "he lived by the sword", where ''sweorde'' is the instrumental form of ''sweord''. During the Old English period, the instrumental was falling out of use, having largely merged with the dative. Only pronouns and strong adjectives retained separate forms for the instrumental.
There were different endings depending on whether the noun was in the singular (for example, ''hring'' 'one ring') or plural (for example, ''hringas'' 'many rings').
Nouns are also categorised by grammatical gender – masculine, feminine, or neuter. Masculine and neuter words generally share their endings. Feminine words have their own subset of endings. The plural does not distinguish between genders.
Furthermore, Old English nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak nouns are easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their declensional system. However, there is a great deal of overlap between the various classes of noun: they are not totally distinct from one another.
Here are the strong declensional endings and examples for each gender:
For the '-u/–' forms above, the '-u' is used with a root consisting of a single short syllable or ending in a long syllable followed by a short syllable, while roots ending in long a syllable or two short syllables are not inflected. (A long syllable contains a long vowel or is followed by two consonants. Note also that there are some exceptions; for example, feminine nouns ending in -þu such as ''strengþu'' 'strength'.)
Note the syncopation of the second ''e'' in ''engel'' when an ending follows. This syncopation of the vowel in the second syllable occurs with two-syllable strong nouns which have a long vowel in the first syllable and a second syllable consisting of a short vowel and single consonant (for example, ''engel'', ''wuldor'' 'glory', and ''hēafod'' 'head'). However, this syncopation is not always present, so forms such as ''engelas'' may be seen.
Here are the weak declensional endings and examples for each gender:
In addition, masculine and neuter nouns whose main vowel is short 'æ' and end with a single consonant change the vowel to 'a' in the plural:
Some masculine and neuter nouns end in -e in their base form. These drop the -e and add normal endings. Note that neuter nouns in -e always have -u in the plural, even with a long vowel:
Nouns ending in -h lose this when an ending is added, and lengthen the vowel in compensation (this can result in compression of the ending as well):
Nouns whose stem ends in -w change this to -u or drop it in the nominative singular. (Note that this '-u/–' distinction depends on syllable weight, as for strong nouns, above.)
A few nouns follow the -u declension, with an entirely different set of endings. The following examples are both masculine, although feminines also exist, with the same endings (for example ''duru'' 'door' and ''hand'' 'hand'). Note that the '-u/–' distinction in the singular depends on syllable weight, as for strong nouns, above.
There are also some nouns of the consonant declension, which show i-umlaut in some forms.
Other such nouns include (with singular and plural nominative forms given):
Masculine: tōþ, tēþ 'tooth'; mann, menn 'man'; frēond, frīend 'friend'; fēond, fīend 'enemy' (cf. 'fiend')
Feminine: ''studu'', ''styde'' 'post' (cf. 'stud'); ''hnitu'', ''hnite'' 'nit'; ''āc'', '' 'oak'; ''gāt'', '' 'goat'; ''brōc'', ''brēc'' 'leg covering' (cf. 'breeches'); ''gōs'', ''gēs'' 'goose'; ''burg'', ''byrg'' 'city' (cf. German cities in -burg); ''dung'', ''ding'' 'prison' (cf. 'dungeon' by way of French and Frankish); ''turf'', ''tyrf'' 'turf'; ''grūt'', '' 'meal' (cf. 'grout'); ''lūs'', '' 'louse'; ''mūs'', '' 'mouse'; ''neaht'', ''niht'' 'night'
Feminine with loss of -h in some forms: ''furh'', ''fyrh'' 'furrow' or 'fir'; ''sulh'', ''sylh'' 'plough'; ''þrūh'', '' 'trough'; ''wlōh'', ''wlēh'' 'fringe'.
Feminine with compression of endings: ''cū'', '' 'cow' (cf. dialectal plural 'kine')
Neuter nouns with -r in plural:
Other such nouns: ''cealf'', ''cealfru'' 'calf'; '', '' 'egg' (the form 'egg' is a borrowing from Old Norse); ''cild'' 'child' has either the normal plural ''cild'' or ''cildru'' (cf. 'children', with -en from the weak nouns).
Adjectives in Old English are declined using the same categories as nouns: five cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and two numbers (singular, plural). In addition, they can be declined either strong or weak. The weak forms are used in the presence of a definite or possessive determiner, while the strong ones are used in other situations. The weak forms are identical to those for nouns, while the strong forms use a combination of noun and pronoun endings:
For the '-u/–' forms above, the distinction is the same as for strong nouns.
Note that the same variants described above for nouns also exist for adjectives. The following example shows both the æ/a variation and the -u forms in the feminine singular and neuter plural:
The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -h:
The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -w:
Old English had two main determiners: ''se'', which could function as both 'the' or 'that', and ''þes'' for 'this'.
Modern English 'that' descends from the neuter nominative/accusative form, and 'the' from the masculine nominative form, with 's' replaced analogously by the 'th' of the other forms. The feminine nominative form was probably the source of Modern English 'she.'
Most pronouns are declined by number, case and gender; in the plural form most pronouns have only one form for all genders. Additionally, Old English pronouns reserve the dual form (which is specifically for talking about groups of two things, for example "we two" or "you two" or "they two"). These were uncommon even then, but remained in use throughout the period.
Many of the forms above bear strong resemblances to their contemporary English language equivalents: for instance in the genitive case ''ēower'' became "your", ''ūre'' became "our", ''mīn'' became "mine".
Prepositions (like Modern English words ''by'', ''for'', and ''with'') often follow the word which they govern, in which case they are called ''postpositions''. Also, for that the object of a preposition was marked in the dative case, a preposition may concievably be located any where in the sentence, even appended to the verb. e.g. "Scyld Scefing sceathena threatum meodo setla of teoh" means "Scyld took mead settles of(from) enemy threats." The infinitive is not declined.
★ Old English language (list of prepositions)
★ Old English phonology
Verbs
Verbs in Old English are divided into strong or weak verbs. Strong verbs indicate tense by a change in the quality of a vowel, while weak verbs indicate tense by the addition of an ending.
Strong verbs
Strong verbs use the Germanic form of conjugation known as ''ablaut''. In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to indicate the tense. Verbs like this persist in modern English, for example ''sing, sang, sung'' is a strong verb, as are ''swim, swam, swum'' and ''choose, chose, chosen''. The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending. In Old English, there were seven major classes of strong verb; each class has its own pattern of stem changes. Learning these is often a challenge for students of the language, though English speakers may see connections between the old verb classes and their modern forms.
The classes had the following distinguishing features to their infinitive stems:
- ī + 1 consonant.
- ēo or ū + 1 consonant.
- Originally e + 2 consonants (This was no longer the case by the time of written Old English).
- e + 1 consonant (usually l or r, plus the verb ''brecan'' 'to break').
- e + 1 consonant (usually a stop or a fricative).
- a + 1 consonant.
- No specific rule — first and second have identical stems (ē or ēo), and the infinitive and the past participle also have the same stem.
| 'Stem Changes in Strong Verbs' | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Class' | 'Infinitive' | 'First Preterite' | 'Second Preterite' | 'Past Participle' |
| 'I' | ī | ā | i | i |
| 'II' | ēo or ū | ēa | u | o |
| 'III' | ''see table below'' | |||
| 'IV' | e | æ | o | |
| 'V' | e | æ | e | |
| 'VI' | a | ō | ō | a |
| 'VII' | — | ē ''or'' ēo | ē ''or'' ēo | — |
The first preterite stem is used in the preterite tense, for the first and third persons singular. The second preterite stem is used for second person singular, and all persons in the plural (as well as the preterite subjunctive). Strong verbs also exhibit i-mutation of the stem in the second and third persons singular in the present tense.
The third class went through so many sound changes that it was barely recognisable as a single class. The first was a process called 'breaking'. Before
The second sound-change to affect it was the influence of palatal sounds
The third sound change turned
Altogether, this split the third class into five sub-classes:
- e + two consonants (apart from clusters beginning with l).
- eo + r or h + another consonant.
- e + l + another consonant.
- g, c, or sc + ie + two consonants.
- i + nasal + another consonant.
| 'Stem Changes in Class III' | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Sub-class' | 'Infinitive' | 'First Preterite' | 'Second Preterite' | 'Past Participle' |
| 'a' | e | æ | u | o |
| 'b' | eo | ea | u | o |
| 'c' | e | ea | u | o |
| 'd' | ie | ea | u | o |
| 'e' | i | a | u | u |
Regular strong verbs were all conjugated roughly the same, with the main differences being in the stem vowel. Thus ''stelan'' 'to steal' represents the strong verb conjugation paradigm.
| 'Conjugation' | 'Pronoun' | 'steal' |
|---|---|---|
| 'Infinitives' | stelan | |
| tō stelanne | ||
| 'Present Indicative' | ||
| 'ic' | stele | |
| 'þū' | stilst | |
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | stilð | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | stelaþ | |
| 'Past Indicative' | 'ic' | stæl |
| 'þū' | stæle | |
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | stæl | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | stælon | |
| 'Present Subjunctive' | 'ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo' | stele |
| ' wē/gē/hīe ' | stelen | |
| 'Past Subjunctive' | 'ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo' | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | ||
| 'Imperative' | 'Singular' | stel |
| 'Plural' | stelaþ | |
| 'Present Participle' | stelende | |
| 'Past Participle' | stolen | |
Weak verbs
Weak verbs are formed by adding dental (''t'' or ''d'') endings to the stem for the past and past-participle tenses. Some examples are ''love, loved'' or ''look, looked''.
Originally, the weak ending was used to form the preterite of informal, noun-derived verbs such as often emerge in conversation and which have no established system of stem-change. By nature, these verbs were almost always transitive, and even today, most weak verbs are transitive verbs formed in the same way. However, as English came into contact with non-Germanic languages, it invariably borrowed useful verbs which lacked established stem-change patterns. Rather than invent and standardize new classes or learn foreign conjugations, English speakers simply applied the weak ending to the foreign bases.
The linguistic trends of borrowing foreign verbs and verbalizing nouns have greatly increased the number of weak verbs over the last 1200 years. Some verbs that were originally strong (for example ''help, holp, holpen'') have become weak by analogy; most foreign verbs are adopted as weak verbs; and when verbs are made from nouns (for example "to scroll" or "to water") the resulting verb is weak. Additionally, conjugation of weak verbs is easier to teach, since there are fewer classes of variation. In combination, these factors have drastically increased the number of weak verbs, so that in modern English weak verbs are the most numerous and productive form (although occasionally a weak verb may turn into a strong verb through the process of analogy, such as ''sneak'' (originally only a noun), where ''snuck'' is an analogical formation rather than survivals from Old English).
There are three major classes of weak verbs in Old English. The first class displays i-mutation in the root, and the second class none. There is also a third class explained below.
Class-one verbs with short roots exhibit gemination of the final stem consonant in certain forms. With verbs in
Where class-one verbs have gemination, class-two verbs have <i> or
In the following table, three verbs are conjugated. ''Swebban'' 'to put to sleep' is a class one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel. '' 'to heal' is a class-one verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. ''Sīðian'' 'to journey' is a class-two verb.
| 'Conjugation' | 'Pronoun' | 'put to sleep' | 'heal' | 'journey' |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Infinitives' | swebban | sīðian | ||
| tō swebbanne | tō | tō sīðianne | ||
| 'Present Indicative' | ||||
| 'ic' | swebbe | sīðie | ||
| 'þū' | swefest | sīðast | ||
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | swefeþ | sīðað | ||
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | swebbaþ | sīðiað | ||
| 'Past Indicative' | 'ic' | swefede | sīðode | |
| 'þū' | swefedest | sīðodest | ||
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | swefede | sīðode | ||
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | swefedon | sīðodon | ||
| 'Present Subjunctive' | 'ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo' | swebbe | sīðie | |
| ' wē/gē/hīe ' | swebben | sīðien | ||
| 'Past Subjunctive' | 'ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo' | swefede | sīðode | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | swefeden | sīðoden | ||
| 'Imperative' | 'Singular' | swefe | sīða | |
| 'Plural' | swebbaþ | sīðiað | ||
| 'Present Participle' | swefende | sīðiende | ||
| 'Past Participle' | swefed | sīðod | ||
During the Old English period the third class was significantly reduced; only four verbs belonged to this group: ''habban'' 'have', ''libban'' 'live', ''secgan'' 'say', and ''hycgan'' 'think'. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though they share some commonalities.
| 'Conjugation' | 'Pronoun' | 'have' | 'live' | 'say' | 'think' |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Infinitive' | habban | libban, lifgan | secgan | hycgan | |
| 'Present Indicative' | |||||
| 'ic' | hæbbe | libbe, lifge | secge | hycge | |
| 'þū' | hæfst, hafast | lifast, leofast | segst, sagast | hygst, hogast | |
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | hæfð, hafað | lifað, leofað | segð, sagað | hyg(e)d, hogað | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | habbaþ | libbað | secgaþ | hycgað | |
| 'Past Indicative' | '(all persons)' | hæfde | lifde, leofode | sægde | hog(o)de, hygde |
| 'Present Subjunctive' | '(all persons)' | hæbbe | libbe, lifge | secge | hycge |
| 'Past Subjunctive' | '(all persons)' | hæfde | lifde, leofode | sægde | hog(o)de, hygde |
| 'Imperative' | 'Singular' | hafa | leofa | sæge, saga | hyge, hoga |
| 'Plural' | habbaþ | libbaþ, lifgaþ | secgaþ | hycgaþ | |
| 'Present Participle' | hæbbende | libbende, lifgende | secgende | hycgende | |
| 'Past Participle' | gehæfd | gelifd | gesægd | gehogod | |
Preterite-present verbs
The preterite-present verbs are a class of verbs which have a present tense in the form of a strong preterite and a past tense like the past of a weak verb. These verbs derive from the subjunctive or optative use of preterite forms to refer to present or future time. For example, ''witan'', "to know" comes from a verb which originally meant "to have seen" (cf. OE 'wise' "manner, mode, appearance"; Latin 'videre' "to see" from the same root). The present singular is formed from the original singular preterite stem and the present plural from the original plural preterite stem. As a result of this history, the first-person singular and third-person singular are the same in the present.
Few preterite present appear in the Old English corpus, and some are not attested in all forms.
| 'Conjugation' | 'Pronoun' | 'know, know how to, can' | 'be able to, may' | 'be obliged to, shall' | 'know, wit' | 'own, owe' | 'avail, dow' | 'dare' | 'remember' | 'need' | 'be able to, be obliged to, mote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Infinitives' | cunnan | magan | sculan | witan | āgan | dugan | durran | munan | mōtan | ||
| 'Present Indicative' | |||||||||||
| 'ic' | cann | mæg | sceal | wāt | āh | deah | dearr | man | þearf | mōt | |
| 'þū' | canst | meaht | scealt | wāst | āhst | dearst | manst | þearft | mōst | ||
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | cann | mæg | sceal | wāt | āh | deah | dearr | man | þearf | mōt | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | cunnon | magon | sculon | witon | āgon | dugon | durron | munon | þurfon | mōton | |
| 'Past Indicative' | |||||||||||
| 'ic' | cūðe | meahte | sceolde | wisse, wiste | āhte | dohte | dorst | munde | þorfte | mōste | |
| 'þū' | cūðest | meahtest | sceoldest | wissest, wistest | āhte | dohte | dorst | munde | þorfte | mōste | |
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | cūðe | meahte | sceolde | wisse, wiste | āhte | dohte | dorst | munde | þorfte | mōste | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | cūðon | meahton | sceoldon | wisson, wiston | |||||||
| 'Present Subjunctive' | |||||||||||
| 'ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo' | cunne | mæge | scule | wite | āge | dyge, duge | durre | myne, mune | þyrfe, þurfe | mōte | |
| ' wē/gē/hīe ' | cunnen | mægen | sculen | witaþ | |||||||
| 'Past Subjunctive' | |||||||||||
| 'ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo' | cūðe | meahte | sceolde | wisse, wiste | |||||||
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | cūðen | meahten | sceolden | ||||||||
Anomalous verbs
Additionally there is a further group of four verbs which are anomalous, the verbs "will", "do", "go" and "be". These four have their own conjugation schemes which differ significantly from all the other classes of verb. This is not especially unusual: "will", "do", "go", and "be" are the most commonly used verbs in the language, and are very important to the meaning of the sentences they are used in. Idiosyncratic patterns of inflection are much more common with important items of vocabulary than with rarely-used ones.
''Dōn'' 'to do', ''gān'' 'to go', and ''willan'' 'will' are conjugated alike:
| 'Conjugation' | 'Pronoun' | 'do' | 'go' | 'will' |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Infinitive' | – | dōn | gān | willan |
| 'Present Indicative' | ||||
| 'ic' | dō | gā | wille | |
| 'þū' | dēst | wilt | ||
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | dēð | wile | ||
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | dōð | gāð | willað | |
| 'Past Indicative' | ||||
| 'ic/hē/hit/hēo' | dyde | ēode | wolde | |
| 'þū' | dydest | ēodest | woldest | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | dydon | ēodon | woldon | |
| 'Present Subjunctive' | '(all persons)' | dō | gā | wille |
| 'Past Subjunctive' | '(all persons)' | dyde | ēode | wolde |
| 'Present Participle' | dōnde | – | willende | |
| 'Past Participle' | gedōn | gegān | – | |
The verb 'to be' is actually composed of three different stems:
| 'Conjugation' | 'Pronoun' | 'sindon' | 'bēon' | 'wesan' |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Infinitive' | – | sindon | bēon | wesan |
| 'Present Indicative' | ||||
| 'ic' | eom | bēo | wese | |
| 'þū' | eart | bist | wesst | |
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | is | bið | wes(t) | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | sind(on) | bēoð | wesað | |
| 'Past Indicative' | ||||
| 'ic' | – | – | wæs | |
| 'þū' | – | – | ||
| 'hē/hit/hēo' | – | – | wæs | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | – | – | ||
| 'Present Subjunctive' | ||||
| 'ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo' | sīe | bēo | wese | |
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | sīen | bēon | wesen | |
| 'Past Subjunctive' | ||||
| 'ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo' | – | – | ||
| 'wē/gē/hīe' | – | – | ||
| 'Imperative' | ||||
| '(singular)' | – | bēo | wes | |
| '(plural)' | – | bēoð | wesað | |
| 'Present Participle' | – | bēonde | wesende | |
| 'Past Participle' | – | gebēon | – | |
The present forms of ''wesan'' are almost never used. The ''bēon'' forms are usually used in reference to future actions. The modern verb 'to be' takes its present indicative forms from ''sindon,'' its past indicative forms from ''wesan,'' its present subjunctive forms from ''bēon,'' its past subjunctive forms from ''wesan,'' and its imperative and particicple forms from ''bēon.''
Nouns
Old English nouns were declined – that is, the ending of the noun changed to reflect its function in the sentence. There were five major cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and instrumental.
★ The nominative case indicated the subject of the sentence, for example ''se cyning'' means 'the king'. It was also used for direct address. Adjectives in the predicate (qualifying a noun on the other side of 'to be') were also in the nominative.
★ The accusative indicated the direct object of the sentence, for example ''Æþelbald lufode þone cyning'' means "Æþelbald loved the king", where Æþelbald is the subject and the king is the object. Already the accusative had begun to merge with the nominative; it was never distinguished in the plural, or in a neuter noun.
★ The genitive case indicated possession, for example the ''þæs cyninges scip'' is "the ship of the king" or "the king's ship". It also indicated partitive nouns.
★ The dative case indicated the indirect object of the sentence, for example ''hringas þæm cyninge'' means "rings for the king" or "rings to the king". There were also several verbs which took direct objects in the dative.
★ The instrumental case indicated an instrument used to achieve something, for example ''lifde sweorde'', "he lived by the sword", where ''sweorde'' is the instrumental form of ''sweord''. During the Old English period, the instrumental was falling out of use, having largely merged with the dative. Only pronouns and strong adjectives retained separate forms for the instrumental.
There were different endings depending on whether the noun was in the singular (for example, ''hring'' 'one ring') or plural (for example, ''hringas'' 'many rings').
Nouns are also categorised by grammatical gender – masculine, feminine, or neuter. Masculine and neuter words generally share their endings. Feminine words have their own subset of endings. The plural does not distinguish between genders.
Furthermore, Old English nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak nouns are easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their declensional system. However, there is a great deal of overlap between the various classes of noun: they are not totally distinct from one another.
Strong nouns
Here are the strong declensional endings and examples for each gender:
| 'The Strong Noun Declension' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | – | -as | – | -u/– | -u/– | -a |
| 'Accusative' | – | -as | – | -u/– | -e | -a, -e |
| 'Genitive' | -es | -a | -es | -a | -e | -a |
| 'Dative' | -e | -um | -e | -um | -e | -um |
For the '-u/–' forms above, the '-u' is used with a root consisting of a single short syllable or ending in a long syllable followed by a short syllable, while roots ending in long a syllable or two short syllables are not inflected. (A long syllable contains a long vowel or is followed by two consonants. Note also that there are some exceptions; for example, feminine nouns ending in -þu such as ''strengþu'' 'strength'.)
| 'Example of the Strong Noun Declension for each Gender' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' engel 'angel' | 'Neuter' scip 'ship' | 'Feminine' sorg 'sorrow' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | engel | englas | scip | scipu | sorg | sorga |
| 'Accusative' | engel | englas | scip | scipu | sorge | sorga/sorge |
| 'Genitive' | engles | engla | scipes | scipa | sorge | sorga |
| 'Dative' | engle | englum | scipe | scipum | sorge | sorgum |
Note the syncopation of the second ''e'' in ''engel'' when an ending follows. This syncopation of the vowel in the second syllable occurs with two-syllable strong nouns which have a long vowel in the first syllable and a second syllable consisting of a short vowel and single consonant (for example, ''engel'', ''wuldor'' 'glory', and ''hēafod'' 'head'). However, this syncopation is not always present, so forms such as ''engelas'' may be seen.
Weak nouns
Here are the weak declensional endings and examples for each gender:
| 'The Weak Noun Declension' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | -a | -an | -e | -an | -e | -an |
| 'Accusative' | -an | -an | -e | -an | -an | -an |
| 'Genitive' | -an | -ena | -an | -ena | -an | -ena |
| 'Dative' | -an | -um | -an | -um | -an | -um |
| 'Example of the Weak Noun Declension for each Gender' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' nama 'name' | 'Neuter' ēage 'eye' | 'Feminine' tunge 'tongue' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | nama | naman | ēage | ēagan | tunge | tungan |
| 'Accusative' | naman | naman | ēage | ēagan | tungan | tungan |
| 'Genitive' | naman | namena | ēagan | ēagena | tungan | tungena |
| 'Dative' | naman | namum | ēagan | ēagum | tungan | tungum |
Irregular strong nouns
In addition, masculine and neuter nouns whose main vowel is short 'æ' and end with a single consonant change the vowel to 'a' in the plural:
| 'Dæg' 'day' ''m.'' | ||||
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Nominative' | dæg | dagas | ||
| 'Accusative' | dæg | dagas | ||
| 'Genitive' | dæges | daga | ||
| 'Dative' | dæge | dagum | ||
Some masculine and neuter nouns end in -e in their base form. These drop the -e and add normal endings. Note that neuter nouns in -e always have -u in the plural, even with a long vowel:
| 'Example of the Strong Noun Declensions ending in -e' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' ende 'end' | 'Neuter' 'steel' | ||||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |||
| 'Nominative' | ende | endas | ||||
| 'Accusative' | ende | endas | ||||
| 'Genitive' | endes | enda | ||||
| 'Dative' | ende | endum | ||||
Nouns ending in -h lose this when an ending is added, and lengthen the vowel in compensation (this can result in compression of the ending as well):
| 'Example of the Strong Noun Declensions ending in -h' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' mearh 'horse' | 'Neuter' feorh 'life' | 'Masculine' scōh 'shoe' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | mearh | mēares | feorh | feorh | scōh | scōs |
| 'Accusative' | mearh | mēares | feorh | feorh | scōh | scōs |
| 'Genitive' | mēares | mēara | fēores | fēora | scōs | scōna |
| 'Dative' | mēare | mēarum | fēores | fēorum | scō | scōm |
Nouns whose stem ends in -w change this to -u or drop it in the nominative singular. (Note that this '-u/–' distinction depends on syllable weight, as for strong nouns, above.)
| 'Example of the Strong Noun Declensions ending in -w' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Neuter' smeoru 'grease' | 'Feminine' sinu 'sinew' | 'Feminine' 'pasture' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | smeoru | smeoru | sinu | sinwa | ||
| 'Accusative' | smeoru | smeoru | sinwe | sinwa, -e | -e | |
| 'Genitive' | smeorwes | smeorwa | sinwe | sinwa | ||
| 'Dative' | smeorwe | smeorwum | sinwe | sinwum | ||
A few nouns follow the -u declension, with an entirely different set of endings. The following examples are both masculine, although feminines also exist, with the same endings (for example ''duru'' 'door' and ''hand'' 'hand'). Note that the '-u/–' distinction in the singular depends on syllable weight, as for strong nouns, above.
| 'Example of the -u Declension' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' sunu 'son' | 'Masculine' feld 'field' | ||||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |||
| 'Nominative' | sunu | suna | feld | felda | ||
| 'Accusative' | sunu | suna | feld | felda | ||
| 'Genitive' | suna | suna | felda | felda | ||
| 'Dative' | suna | sunum | felda | feldum | ||
There are also some nouns of the consonant declension, which show i-umlaut in some forms.
| 'Example of the Strong Noun Declensions ending in -w' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' fōt 'foot' | 'Feminine' hnutu 'nut' | 'Feminine' bōc 'book' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | fōt | fēt | hnutu | hnyte | bōc | bēc |
| 'Accusative' | fōt | fēt | hnutu | hnyte | bōc | bēc |
| 'Genitive' | fōtes | fōta | hnyte, hnute | hnuta | bēc, bōce | bōca |
| 'Dative' | fōte | fōtum | hnyte, hnute | hnutum | bēc, bōc | bōcum |
Other such nouns include (with singular and plural nominative forms given):
Masculine: tōþ, tēþ 'tooth'; mann, menn 'man'; frēond, frīend 'friend'; fēond, fīend 'enemy' (cf. 'fiend')
Feminine: ''studu'', ''styde'' 'post' (cf. 'stud'); ''hnitu'', ''hnite'' 'nit'; ''āc'', '' 'oak'; ''gāt'', '' 'goat'; ''brōc'', ''brēc'' 'leg covering' (cf. 'breeches'); ''gōs'', ''gēs'' 'goose'; ''burg'', ''byrg'' 'city' (cf. German cities in -burg); ''dung'', ''ding'' 'prison' (cf. 'dungeon' by way of French and Frankish); ''turf'', ''tyrf'' 'turf'; ''grūt'', '' 'meal' (cf. 'grout'); ''lūs'', '' 'louse'; ''mūs'', '' 'mouse'; ''neaht'', ''niht'' 'night'
Feminine with loss of -h in some forms: ''furh'', ''fyrh'' 'furrow' or 'fir'; ''sulh'', ''sylh'' 'plough'; ''þrūh'', '' 'trough'; ''wlōh'', ''wlēh'' 'fringe'.
Feminine with compression of endings: ''cū'', '' 'cow' (cf. dialectal plural 'kine')
Nouns of relationship
| 'Nouns of Relationship' | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' fæder 'father' | 'Masculine' brōðor 'brother' | 'Feminine' mōdor 'mother' | 'Feminine' sweostor 'sister' | 'Feminine' dohtor 'daughter' | |||||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | fæder | fæd(e)ras | brōðor | (ge)brōðor | mōdor | mōdra/mōdru | sweostor | (ge)sweostor, -tru, -tra | dohtor | dohtor |
| 'Accusative' | fæder | fæd(e)ras | brōðor | (ge)brōðor | mōdor | mōdra/mōdru | sweostor | (ge)sweostor, -tru, -tra | dohtor | dohtor |
| 'Genitive' | fæder | fæd(e)ra | brōðor | (ge)brōðra | mōdor | mōdra | sweostor | (ge)sweostra | dohtor | dohtra |
| 'Dative' | fæder | fæderum | brēðer | (ge)brōðrum | mēder | mōdrum | sweostor | (ge)sweostrum | dehter | dohtrum |
Neuter nouns with -r in plural:
| 'Lamb' 'lamb' ''n.'' | ||||
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Nominative' | lamb | lambru | ||
| 'Accusative' | lamb | lambru | ||
| 'Genitive' | lambes | lambra | ||
| 'Dative' | lambe | lambrum | ||
Other such nouns: ''cealf'', ''cealfru'' 'calf'; '', '' 'egg' (the form 'egg' is a borrowing from Old Norse); ''cild'' 'child' has either the normal plural ''cild'' or ''cildru'' (cf. 'children', with -en from the weak nouns).
Adjectives
Adjectives in Old English are declined using the same categories as nouns: five cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and two numbers (singular, plural). In addition, they can be declined either strong or weak. The weak forms are used in the presence of a definite or possessive determiner, while the strong ones are used in other situations. The weak forms are identical to those for nouns, while the strong forms use a combination of noun and pronoun endings:
| 'The Strong Adjective Declension' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | – | -e | – | -u/– | -u/– | -e, -a |
| 'Accusative' | -ne | -e | – | -u/– | -e | -e, -a |
| 'Genitive' | -es | -ra | -es | -ra | -re | -ra |
| 'Dative' | -um | -um | -um | -um | -re | -um |
| 'Instrumental' | -e | -um | -e | -um | -re | -um |
For the '-u/–' forms above, the distinction is the same as for strong nouns.
| 'Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: gōd 'good' ' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | gōd | gōde | gōd | gōd | gōd | gōde, -a |
| 'Accusative' | gōdne | gōde | gōd | gōd | gōde | gōde, -a |
| 'Genitive' | gōdes | gōdra | gōdes | gōdra | gōdre | gōdra |
| 'Dative' | gōdum | gōdum | gōdum | gōdum | gōdre | gōdum |
| 'Instrumental' | gōde | gōdum | gōde | gōdum | gōdre | gōdum |
| 'Example of the Weak Adjective Declension: gōd 'good' ' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | gōda | gōdan | gōde | gōdan | gōde | gōdan |
| 'Accusative' | gōdan | gōdan | gōde | gōdan | gōdan | gōdan |
| 'Genitive' | gōdan | gōdena | gōdan | gōdena | gōdan | gōdena |
| 'Dative' | gōdan | gōdum | gōdan | gōdum | gōdan | gōdum |
| 'Instrumental' | gōdan | gōdum | gōdan | gōdum | gōdan | gōdum |
Note that the same variants described above for nouns also exist for adjectives. The following example shows both the æ/a variation and the -u forms in the feminine singular and neuter plural:
| 'Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: glæd 'glad' ' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | glæd | glade | glæd | gladu | gladu | glade |
| 'Accusative' | glædne | glade | glæd | gladu | glade | glade |
| 'Genitive' | glades | glædra | glades | glædra | glædre | glædra |
| 'Dative' | gladum | gladum | gladum | gladum | glædre | gladum |
| 'Instrumental' | glade | gladum | glade | gladum | glædre | gladum |
The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -h:
| 'Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: hēah 'high' ' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | hēah | hēa | hēah | hēa | hēa | hēa |
| 'Accusative' | hēane | hēa | hēah | hēa | hēa | hēa |
| 'Genitive' | hēas | hēara | hēas | hēara | hēare | hēara |
| 'Dative' | hēam | hēam | hēam | hēam | hēare | hēam |
| 'Instrumental' | hēa | hēam | hēa | hēam | hēare | hēam |
The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -w:
| 'Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: gearu 'ready' ' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | |||
| 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | |
| 'Nominative' | gearu | gearwe | gearu | gearu | gearu | gearwe |
| 'Accusative' | gearone | gearwe | gearu | gearu | gearwe | gearwe |
| 'Genitive' | gearwes | gearora | gearwes | gearora | gearore | gearora |
| 'Dative' | gearwum | gearwum | gearwum | gearwum | gearore | gearwum |
| 'Instrumental' | gearwe | gearwum | gearwe | gearwum | gearore | gearwum |
Determiners
Old English had two main determiners: ''se'', which could function as both 'the' or 'that', and ''þes'' for 'this'.
| 'the/that' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | 'Plural' | ||
| 'Nominative' | se | þæt | sēo | þā | ||
| 'Accusative' | þone | þæt | þā | þā | ||
| 'Genitive' | þæs | þæs | þāra, | |||
| 'Dative' | þām | |||||
| 'Instrumental' | þon | þon | – | – | ||
Modern English 'that' descends from the neuter nominative/accusative form, and 'the' from the masculine nominative form, with 's' replaced analogously by the 'th' of the other forms. The feminine nominative form was probably the source of Modern English 'she.'
| 'this' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Masculine' | 'Neuter' | 'Feminine' | 'Plural' | ||
| 'Nominative' | þes | þis | þēos | þās | ||
| 'Accusative' | þisne | þis | þās | þās | ||
| 'Genitive' | þisses | þisses | þisse, þisre | þisra | ||
| 'Dative' | þissum | þissum | þisse, þisre | þissum | ||
| 'Instrumental' | – | – | ||||
Pronouns
Most pronouns are declined by number, case and gender; in the plural form most pronouns have only one form for all genders. Additionally, Old English pronouns reserve the dual form (which is specifically for talking about groups of two things, for example "we two" or "you two" or "they two"). These were uncommon even then, but remained in use throughout the period.
Personal pronouns
| 'First Person' | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Dual' |
| 'Nominative' | ic, īc | wē | wit |
| 'Accusative' | mec, mē | ūsic, ūs | uncit, unc |
| 'Genitive' | mīn | ūre | uncer |
| 'Dative' | mē | ūs | unc |
| 'Second Person' | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | 'Dual' |
| 'Nominative' | þū | gē | git |
| 'Accusative' | þēc, þē | ēowic, ēow | incit, inc |
| 'Genitive' | þin | ēower | incer |
| 'Dative' | þe | ēow | inc |
| 'Third Person' | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Case' | 'Singular' | 'Plural' | ||||
| 'Masc.' | 'Neut.' | 'Fem.' | ||||
| 'Nominative' | hē | hit | hēo | hiē ''m.'', hēo ''f.'' | ||
| 'Accusative' | hine | hit | hīe | hiē ''m.'', hīo ''f.'' | ||
| 'Genitive' | his | his | hire | hiera ''m.'', heora ''f.'' | ||
| 'Dative' | him | him | hire | him | ||
Many of the forms above bear strong resemblances to their contemporary English language equivalents: for instance in the genitive case ''ēower'' became "your", ''ūre'' became "our", ''mīn'' became "mine".
Prepositions
Prepositions (like Modern English words ''by'', ''for'', and ''with'') often follow the word which they govern, in which case they are called ''postpositions''. Also, for that the object of a preposition was marked in the dative case, a preposition may concievably be located any where in the sentence, even appended to the verb. e.g. "Scyld Scefing sceathena threatum meodo setla of teoh" means "Scyld took mead settles of(from) enemy threats." The infinitive is not declined.
See also
★ Old English language (list of prepositions)
★ Old English phonology
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psst.. try this: add to faves
