Old English grammar

The grammar of Old English is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more inflected. As an old Germanic language, Old English has a morphological system that is similar to that of the hypothetical Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections thought to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including constructions characteristic of the Germanic daughter languages such as the umlaut.[1]

Among living languages, Old English morphology most closely resembles that of modern Icelandic, which is among the most conservative of the Germanic languages. To a lesser extent, it resembles modern German.

Nouns, pronouns, adjectives and determiners were fully inflected with four grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative), and a vestigial instrumental,[2] two grammatical numbers (singular and plural) and three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). First- and second-person personal pronouns also had dual forms for referring to groups of two people, in addition to the usual singular and plural forms.[3] The instrumental case was somewhat rare and occurred only in the masculine and neuter singular. It was often replaced by the dative. Adjectives, pronouns and (sometimes) participles agreed with their antecedent nouns in case, number and gender. Finite verbs agreed with their subject in person and number.

Nouns came in numerous declensions (with many parallels in Latin, Ancient Greek and Sanskrit). Verbs came in nine main conjugations (seven strong and three weak), all with numerous subtypes, as well as a few additional smaller conjugations and a handful of irregular verbs. The main difference from other ancient Indo-European languages, such as Latin, is that verbs could be conjugated in only two tenses (vs. the six "tenses," really tense/aspect combinations, of Latin), and they have no synthetic passive voice although it still existed in Gothic.

In common with other members of the Indo-European family, Old English has grammatical gender: a given noun does not necessarily correspond to its natural gender, even for nouns referring to people. For example, sēo sunne (the sun) was feminine, se mōna (the moon) was masculine, and þæt wīf (the woman) was neuter. (These correspond to modern German feminine die Sonne, masculine der Mond, and neuter das Weib.) Pronominal usage usually reflected natural gender rather than grammatical gender when the two conflicted.

Verbs

Verbs in Old English are divided into strong and weak verbs. Strong verbs form the past tense by changing a vowel, while weak verbs add an ending.

Strong verbs

Further information: Germanic strong verb

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:

1. ī + one consonant.
2. ēo or ū + one consonant.
3. Originally e + two consonants. By the time of written Old English, many had changed. If C is used to represent any consonant, verbs in this class usually had short e + lC; short eo + rC; short i + nC/mC; or (g̣ +) short ie + lC.
4. e + one consonant (usually l or r, plus the verb brecan 'to break').
5. e + one consonant (usually a stop or a fricative).
6. a + one consonant.
7. Other than the above. Always a heavy root syllable (either a long vowel or short + two consonants), almost always a non-umlauted vowel – e.g., ō, ā, ēa, a (+ nC), ea (+ lC/rC), occ. ǣ (the latter with past in ē instead of normal ēo). Infinitive is distinguishable from class 1 weak verbs by non-umlauted root vowel; from class 2 weak verbs by lack of suffix -ian. First and second preterite have identical stems, usually in ēo (occ. ē), and the infinitive and the past participle also have the same stem.

Stem changes in strong verbs

Verb class		Stem vowel
Class	Root weight	Non-past	First past	Second past	Past participle
1	heavy	ī	ā	i
2		ēo, ū	ēa	u	o
3		e (+CC)	æ	u	o
		e (+lC), eo (+rC/ hC)	ea
		i (+nC)	a		u
4	light	e(+r/l)	æ	ǣ	o
5		e(+other)			e
6		a	ō		a
7	heavy	various	ē or ēo		same as infinitive

The first past stem is used in the past, for the first- and third-person singular. The second past 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-person 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 ⟨h⟩, and ⟨r⟩ + another consonant, ⟨æ⟩ turned into ⟨ea⟩, and ⟨e⟩ to ⟨eo⟩. Also, before ⟨l⟩ + another consonant, the same happened to ⟨æ⟩, but ⟨e⟩ remained unchanged (except before combination ⟨lh⟩).

A second sound change turned ⟨e⟩ to ⟨i⟩, ⟨æ⟩ to ⟨a⟩, and ⟨o⟩ to ⟨u⟩ before nasals.

Altogether, this split the third class into four sub-classes:

1. e + two consonants (apart from clusters beginning with l).
2. eo + r or h + another consonant.
3. e + l + another consonant.
4. i + nasal + another consonant.

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.

Strong verb conjugation

Strong verb conjugation				Stelan "to steal"
Infinitives				stelan	-an
				tō stelanne	tō -anne
Participle	Present			stelende	-ende
	Past			(ġe)stolen	(ġe)- -en
Indicative	Present	Singular	1st person	stele	-e
			2nd person	stilst	-st
			3rd person	stilþ	-þ
		Plural		stelaþ	-aþ
	Past	Singular	1st person	stæl	-_
			2nd person	stǣle	-e
			3rd person	stæl	-_
		Plural		stǣlon	-on
Subjunctive	Present	Singular		stele	-e
		Plural		stelen	-en
	Past	Singular		stǣle	-e
		Plural		stǣlen	-en
Imperative		Singular		stel	-_
		Plural		stelaþ	-aþ

Weak verbs

Further information: Germanic weak verb

Weak verbs are formed by adding alveolar (t or d) endings to the stem for the past and past-participle tenses. Examples include love, loved and 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 inventing and standardizing new classes or learning 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 1,200 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 learn, 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 a survival 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 ⟨r⟩, this appears as ⟨ri⟩ or ⟨rg⟩, where ⟨i⟩ and ⟨g⟩ are pronounced [j]. Geminated ⟨f⟩ appears as ⟨bb⟩, and that of ⟨g⟩ appears as ⟨cg⟩. 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 ⟨ig⟩, which is a separate syllable pronounced [i]. All class-two verbs have an epenthetic vowel, which appears as ⟨a⟩ or ⟨o⟩.

In the following table, three verbs are conjugated. Hǣlan "to heal" is a class-one verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. Swebban "to put to sleep" is a class-one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel. Sīþian "to travel" is a class-two verb.

Weak verb conjugation

Weak verb conjugation				Class 1, short		Class 1, long		Class 2
Infinitive				hǣlan	-an	swebban	-an	sīþian	-ian
				tō hǣlanne	tō -anne	tō swebbanne	tō -anne	tō sīþienne	tō -ienne
Participle	Present			hǣlende	-ende	swefende	-ende	sīþiende	-iende
	Past			(ġe)hǣled	(ġe)- -ed	(ġe)swefed	(ġe)- -ed	(ġe)sīþod	(ġe)- -od
Indicative	Present	Singular	1st person	hǣle	-e	swebbe	-e	sīþie	-ie
			2nd person	hǣlst	-est	swefest	-est	sīþast	-ast
			3rd person	hǣlþ	-þ	swefeþ	-eþ	sīþaþ	-aþ
		Plural		hǣlaþ	-aþ	swebbaþ	-aþ	sīþiaþ	-iaþ
	Past	Singular	1st person	hǣlde	-de	swefede	-ede	sīþode	-ode
			2nd person	hǣldest	-dest	swefedest	-edest	sīþodest	-odest
			3rd person	hǣlde	-de	swefede	-ede	sīþode	-ode
		Plural		hǣldon	-don	swefedon	-edon	sīþodon	-odon
Subjunctive	Present	Singular		hǣle	-e	swebbe	-e	sīþiġe	-iġe
		Plural		hǣlen	-en	swebben	-en	sīþiġen	-iġen
	Past	Singular		hǣlde	-de	swefede	-ede	sīþode	-ode
		Plural		hǣlden	-den	swefeden	-eden	sīþoden	-oden
Imperative		Singular		hǣl	-_	swefe	-e	sīþa	-a
		Plural		hǣlaþ	-aþ	swebbaþ	-aþ	sīþiaþ	-ia

During the Old English period, the third class was significantly reduced; only four verbs belonged to this group: habban 'have', libban 'live', seċġan 'say', and hyċġan 'think'. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though they share some commonalities.

Class 3 weak verbs

Class 3 weak verbs				Suffixes	Habban "to have"	Libban "to live"	Seċġan "to say"	Hyċġan "to think"
Infinitives				-an	habban	libban	seċġan	hyċġan
				tō -enne	tō hæbbenne	tō libbenne	tō seċġenne	tō hyċġenne
Participle	Present			-ende	hæbbende	libbende	seċġende	hyċġende
	Past			(ġe) -d	(ġe)hæfd	(ġe)lifd	(ġe)sæġd	(ġe)hogd
Indicative	Present	Singular	1st person	-e	hæbbe	libbe	seċġe	hyċġe
			2nd person	-st	hæfst	leofast	sæġst	hyġst
			3rd person	-þ	hæfþ	leofaþ	sæġþ	hyġþ
		Plural		-aþ	habbaþ	libbaþ	seċġaþ	hyċġaþ
	Past	Singular	1st person	-de	hæfde	lifde	sæġde	hogde
			2nd person	-dest	hæfdest	lifdest	sæġdest	hogdest
			3rd person	-de	hæfde	lifde	sæġde	hogde
		Plural		-don	hæfdon	lifdon	sæġdon	hogdon
Subjunctive	Present	Singular		-e	hæbbe	libbe	seċġe	hyċġe
		Plural		-on	hæbben	libben	seċġen	hyċġen
	Past	Singular		-de	hæfde	lifde	sæġde	hogde
		Plural		-den	hæfden	lifde	sæġden	hogden
Imperative		Singular		-a	hafa	leofa	sæġe	hyġe
		Plural		-aþ	habbaþ	libbaþ	seċġaþ	hyċġaþ

Preterite-present verbs

The preterite-present verbs are a class of about a dozen 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 verbs appear in the Old English corpus. Not all of the inflections listed below are attested: some have been reconstructed by comparison with cognates in other languages and with similar verbs in Old English.

In spite of heavy irregularities, there are four groups of similarly-conjugated verbs:

1. Āgan, durran, mōtan, and witan
2. Cunnan, ġemunan (outside the past tense), and unnan
3. Dugan, magan, and ġenugan
4. Sċulan and þurfan

Preterite-present stems

Preterite-present verbs		Participle		Indicative			Subjunctive		Imperative
Class	Infinitive (Meaning)	Present	Past	Present		Past	Present	Past	Singular	Plural
				Singular	Plural
1	Āgan "to own"	āgende	(ġe)āgen	āh-	āg-	āht-	āg-	āht-	āge	āgaþ
	Durran "to dare"	durrende	(ġe)dorren	dearr-	durr-	dorst-	dyrr-	dyrst-	dyrre	durraþ
	Mōtan "may, to be allowed to"	mōtende	(ġe)mōten	mōt-		mōst	mōt-	mōst-	mōte	mōtaþ
	Witan "to know (a fact)"	witende	(ġe)witen	wāt-	wit-	wist-	wit-	wist-	wite	witaþ
2	Cunnan "to know (how to)"	cunnende	(ġe)cunnen, (ġe)cūþ	cann-	cunn-	cūþ-	cunn-	cūþ-	cunne	cunnaþ
	Ġemunan "remember"	ġemunende	ġemunen	ġeman-	ġemun-	ġemund-	ġemun-	ġemund-	ġemune	ġemunaþ
	Unnan "grant"	unnende	(ġe)unnen	ann-	unn-	ūþ-	unn-	ūþ-	unne	unnaþ
3	Dugan "work with, avail"	dugende	(ġe)dugen	deah-	dug-	doht-	dug-	doht-	ġeduge	ġedugaþ
	Ġenugan "to enjoy, use"	ġenugende	ġenugen	ġeneah-	ġenug-	ġenoht-	ġenug-	ġenoht-	ġenuge	ġenugaþ
	Magan "can, be able to"	mæġende	(ġe)mæġen	mæg-	mag-	meaht-	mæg-	miht-	mæge	magaþ
4	Sċulan "should, must"	sċuldende	(ġe)sċulen	sċeal-	sċul-	sċold-	sċyl-	sċyld-	sċyle	sċulaþ
	Þurfan "to need"	þurfende	(ġe)þurfen	þearf-	þurf-	þorft-	þyrf-	þyrft-	þyrfe	þurfaþ

The Old English meanings of many of the verbs are significantly different from that of the modern descendants; in fact, the verbs "can, may, must", and to a lesser extent "thurf, durr" appear to have chain shifted in meaning.

Anomalous verbs

Additionally, there is a further group of four verbs which are anomalous: "want", "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: "want", "do", "go", and "be" are the most commonly used verbs in the language, and are very important to the meaning of the sentences in which they are used. Idiosyncratic patterns of inflection are much more common with important items of vocabulary than with rarely used ones.

Dōn 'to do' and gān 'to go' are conjugated alike; willan 'to want' is similar outside of the present tense.

The verb 'to be' is actually composed of three different stems: one beginning with w-, one beginning with b-, and one beginning with s-. These are traditionally thought of as forming two separate words: wesan, comprising the forms beginning with w- and s-, and bēon, comprising the forms beginning with b-.

In the present tense, wesan and bēon carried a difference in meaning. Wesan was used in most circumstances, whereas bēon was used for the future and for certain kinds of general statements.

Anomalous verbs

Anomalous verbs				Bēon, "to be"	Wesan, "to be"	Dōn, "to do"	Gān, "to go"	Willan "to want"
Infinitive				bēon	wesan	dōn	gān	willan
				tō bēonne	to wesanne	tō dōnne	tō gānne	tō willenne
Participle	Present			bēonde	wesende	dōnde	gangende	willende
	Past			(ġe)bēon		(ġe)dōn	(ġe)gān	*(ġe)willen
Indicative	Present	Singular	1st person	bēo	eom	dō	gā	wille
			2nd person	bist	eart	dēst	gǣst	wilt
			3rd person	biþ	is	dēþ	gǣþ	wile
		Plural		bēoþ	sind	dōþ	gāþ	willaþ
	Past	Singular	1st person	wæs		dyde	ēode	wolde
			2nd person	wǣre		dydest	ēodest	woldest
			3rd person	wæs		dyde	ēode	wolde
		Plural		wǣron		dydon	ēodon	woldon
Subjunctive	Present	Singular		bēo	sīe	dō	gā	wille
		Plural		bēon	sīen	dōn	gān	willen
	Past	Singular		wǣre		dyde	ēode	wolde
		Plural		wǣren		dyde	ēode	wolde
Imperative		Singular		bēo	wes	dō	gā	wille
		Plural		bēoþ	wesaþ	dōþ	gāþ	willaþ

Nouns

Old English is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, adjectives and determiners must be declined for case, number and gender in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. As in several other ancient Germanic languages, Old English declensions include five major cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive 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 case indicated the direct object of the sentence, for example: Æðelbald lufode þone cyning means "Æðelbald loved the king", where Æðelbald 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 sċip is "the king's ship". It also indicated partitive nouns.
• The dative case indicated the indirect object. For example: hringas þǣm cyninge means "rings for the king" or "rings to the king". Here, the word cyning is in its dative form: cyninge. There were also several verbs that 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.

The small body of evidence available for Runic texts suggests that there may also have been a separate locative case in early or Northumbrian forms of the language (e.g., ᚩᚾ ᚱᚩᛞᛁ on rodi "on the Cross").[4]

In addition to inflection for case, nouns take different endings depending on whether the noun was in the singular (for example, hring "one ring"') or plural (for example, hringas "many rings"). Also, some nouns pluralize by way of Umlaut, and some undergo no pluralizing change in certain cases.

Nouns are also categorized by grammatical gender – masculine, feminine, or neuter. In general, masculine and neuter words share most of their endings, while feminine words have their own subset of endings.

Furthermore, Old English nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak nouns are less complex than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their system of declension. However, the various noun classes are not totally distinct from one another, and there is a great deal of overlap between them.

Descriptions of Old English language grammars often follow the NOM-ACC-GEN-DAT-INST case order.

Regular nouns

Here are the regular declensional endings and examples for each gender:

Noun declension

Noun declension	Masculine				Neuter				Feminine
	Singular		Plural		Singular		Plural		Singular		Plural
Strong declension (wulf "wolf"; sċip "ship"; sorg- "sorrow")
Nominative	wulf	-(e)	wulfas	-as	sċip	-_	sċipu	-(u)	sorg	-(u)	sorga	-a
Accusative									sorge	-e	sorga/ sorge	-a/ -e
Genitive	wulfes	-es	wulfa	-a	sċipes	-es	sċipa	-a			sorga	-a
Dative	wulfe	-e	wulfum	-um	sċipa	-a	sċipum	-um			sorgum	-um
Strong W-declension (smeoru "grease"; sinu "sinew")
Nominative		-(u)		-was	smeoru	-(u)	smeoru	-(u)	sinu	-(u)	sinwa	-wa
Accusative									sinwe	-we	sinwa/ sinwe	-wa/ -we
Genitive		-wes		-wa	smeorwes	-wes	smeorwa	-wa			sinwa	-wa
Dative		-we		-wum	smeorwe	-we	smeorwe	-we			sinwum	-wum
Weak declension (nama "name"; ēage "eye"; tunge "tongue")
Nominative	nama	-a	naman	-an	ēage	-e	ēagan	-an	tunge	-e	tungan	-an
Accusative	naman	-an							tungan	-an
Genitive			namena	-ena	ēagan	-an	ēagena	-ena			tungena	-ena
Dative			namum	-um			ēagum	-um			tungum	-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 a long syllable or two short syllables are not inflected. (A long syllable contains a long vowel or is followed by two consonants. There are some exceptions; for example, feminine nouns ending in -þu such as strengþu 'strength'.)

There is a syncope of a vowel in an unstressed second syllable 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, enġel, wuldor 'glory', and hēafod 'head'). However, this syncope is not always present, so forms such as engelas may be seen.

Some strong masculine and neuter nouns end in -e in their base form. These drop the -e and add normal endings. Neuter nouns in -e always have -u in the plural, even with a long vowel.

Nouns whose stem ends in -w change this to -u or drop it in the nominative singular. (This '-u/–' distinction depends on syllable weight, as for other strong nouns, above.)

Irregular nouns

Masculine and neuter nouns whose main vowel is short æ and end with a single consonant change the vowel to a in the plural (a result of the phonological phenomenon known as Anglo-Frisian brightening). In some cases, a consonant change (like ġ to g or c to ċ) may also take place:

Brightened nouns

Brightened nouns	Dæġ "day" (m.)		Blæd "leaf" (n.)
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	dæġ	dagas	blæd	bladu
Accusative
Genitive	dæġes	daga	blædes	blada
Dative	dæġe	dagum	blæde	bladum

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):

Strong H-nouns

H-stem nouns	Mearh "horse" (m.)		Feorh "life" (n.)		Sċōh "shoe" (m.)
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mearh	mēaras	feorh		sċōh	sċōs
Accusative
Genitive	mēares	mēara	fēores	fēora	sċōs	sċōna
Dative	mēare	mēarum	fēore	fēorum	sċō	sċōm

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'). The '-u/–' distinction in the singular depends on syllable weight, as for strong nouns, above.

U-stem nouns

U-stem nouns	Sunu "son" (m.)				Feld "field" (m.)
	Singular		Plural		Singular		Plural
Nominative	sunu	-u	suna	-a	feld	-_	felda	-a
Accusative
Genitive	suna	-a			felda	-a
Dative			sunum	-um			feldum	-um

There are also some nouns of the consonant declension, which show i-umlaut in some forms, which may change a c or g into a ċ or ġ:

I-umlaut nouns

Case	Fōt "foot" (m.)		Hnutu "nut" (f.)
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fōt	fēt	hnutu	hnyte
Accusative
Genitive	fōtes	fōta	hnyte, hnute	hnuta
Dative	fēt, fōte	fōtum		hnutum

Other such nouns include (with singular and plural nominative forms given):

Masculine: tōþ, tēþ 'tooth'; mann, menn 'person'; frēond, frīend 'friend'; fēond, fīend 'enemy' (cf. 'fiend')

Feminine: studu, styde 'post' (cf. 'stud'); hnitu, hnite 'nit'; āc, ǣċ 'oak'; gāt, gǣt 'goat'; brōc, brēċ 'leg covering' (cf. 'breeches'); gōs, gēs 'goose'; burg, byrġ 'city'; dung, dynġ 'prison'; turf, tyrf 'turf'; grūt, grȳt 'meal' (cf. 'grout'); lūs, lȳs 'louse'; mūs, mȳs 'mouse'

Feminine -h stems: furh, fyrh 'furrow' or 'fir'; sulh, sylh 'plough'; þrūh, þrȳh 'trough'; wlōh, wlēh 'fringe'.

Feminine with compression of endings: cū, cȳ 'cow' (cf. dialectal plural 'kine')

Neuter: Sċrūd 'clothing, garment' has the umlauted dative-singular form sċrȳd.

Five nouns of relationship have an irregular declension:

Relationship nouns

Relationship nouns	Fæder "father" (m.)		Brōþor "brother" (m.)		Mōdor "mother" (f.)		Sweostor "sister" (f.)		Dohtor "daughter" (f.)
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fæder	fæderas	brōþor	(ġe)brōþor, -ra, -ru	mōdor	mōdra, -ru	sweostor	(ġe)sweostor, -tra, -tru	dohtor	dohtor, -ra, -ru
Accusative
Genitive		fædera		(ġe)brōþra		mōdra		(ġe)sweostra	dohtor	dohtra
Dative		fæderum	brēþer	(ġe)brōþrum	mēder	mōdrum		(ġe)sweostrum	dehter	dohtrum

A few neuter strong nouns have -r- in the plural, from proto-Germanic -z stem nouns:

R-stem nouns

R-stem nouns	Lamb "lamb" (n.)
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	lamb	lambru
Accusative
Genitive	lambes	lambra
Dative	lambe	lambrum

The other nouns of this type are ǣġ, ǣġru 'egg'; ċealf, ċealfru 'calf'; and ċild 'child', which has either the a-stem plural ċild or the inherited plural ċildru (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:

Adjective declension

Adjective declension		Masculine				Neuter				Feminine
		Singular		Plural		Singular		Plural		Singular		Plural
Strong consonant stem
Rēad "red"	Nominative	rēad	-_	rēade	-e	rēad	-_	rēad	-_	rēad	-_	rēada	-a
	Accusative	rēadne	-ne							rēade	-e
	Genitive	rēades	-es	rēadra	-ra	rēades	-es	rēadra	-ra	rēadre	-re	rēadra	-ra
	Dative	rēadum	-um	rēadum	-um	rēadum	-um	rēadum	-um			rēadum	-um
	Instrumental	rēade	-e			rēade	-e
Strong vowel stem
Grēne "green"	Nominative	grēne	-e	grēne	-e	grēne	-e	grēnu	-u	grēnu	-u	grēna	-a
	Accusative	grēnne	-ne							grēne	-e
	Genitive	grēnes	-es	grēnra	-ra	grēnes	-es	grēnra	-ra	grēnre	-re	grēnra	ra
	Dative	grēnum	-um	grēnum	-um	grēnum	-um	grēnum	-um			grēnum	-um
	Instrumental	grēne	-e			grēne	e
Strong H-stem
Hēah "high"	Nominative	hēah	-h	hēa	-_	hēah	-h	hēah	-_	hēa	-_	hēa	-_
	Accusative	hēane	-ne
	Genitive	hēas	-s	hēara	-ra	hēas	-s	hēara	-ra	hēare	-re	hēara	-ra
	Dative	hēam	-m	hēam	-m	hēam	-m	hēam	-m			hēam	-m
	Instrumental	hēa	-_			hēa	-_
Strong W-stem
Ġearu "ready"	Nominative	ġearu	-u	ġearwe	-we	ġearu	-u	ġearu	-u	ġearu	-u	ġearwe	-we
	Accusative	ġearone	-one							ġearwe	-we
	Genitive	ġearwes	-wes	ġearora	-ora	ġearwes	-wes	ġearora	-ora	ġearore	-ore	ġearore	-ora
	Dative	ġearwum	-wum	ġearwum	-wum	ġearwum	-wum	gearwum	-wum			ġearwum	-wum
	Instrumental	ġearwe	-we			ġearwe	-we
Weak stem
Rēad "red"	Nominative	rēada	-a	rēadan	-an	rēada	-a	rēadan	-an	rēade	-e	rēadan	-an
	Accusative	rēadan	-an			rēade	-e			rēadan	-an
	Genitive			rēadena	-ena	rēadan	-an	rēadena	-ena			rēadena	-ena
	Dative			rēadum	-um			rēadum	-um			rēadum	-um
	Instrumental

The suffix -u can variably be -o, and the feminine nominative plural suffix -a can variably be -e.

W-stem adjectives use -w- before a vowel, -o- before a consonant, and -u word-finally. H-stem adjectives remove the final "-h" before a consonant and drop the vowels of a given ending.

The same stem-changing variants described above for nouns also exist for adjectives. The following example shows both the æ/ a variation of the stems:

Brightening adjectives

Glæd "glad"	Masculine/ Neuter		Feminine
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	glæd-	glad-	glad-	glad-
Accusative
Genitive	glad-	glæd-	glæd-	glæd-
Dative		glad-		glad-
Instrumental

Comparatives and superlatives

Comparative adjectives are fairly regular, but do often cause i-mutation.

Comparative and superlative adjectives

Stem	Comparative	Superlative
Regular adjectives	-ra	-(e)st
Ġeong "young" (i-mutation)	Ġingra	Ġinġest
Gōd "good" (irregular)	Betera	Betst
Yfel "bad" (irregular)	Wyrsa	Wyrrest

Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns/Determiners

Old English had two main determiners: se, which could function as both 'the' or 'that', and þes for 'this'.

Determiner Inflection

Determiner inflection	Se "the; these, those"				Þes "this, these"
	Singular			Plural	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine		Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	se	þæt	sēo	þā	þes	þis	þēos	þās
Accusative	þone		þā		þisne		þās
Genitive	þæs		þǣre	þāra	þisses		þisse	þissa
Dative	þǣm			þǣm	þissum			þissum
Instrumental	þȳ, þon		þǣre	þǣm	þȳs		þisse	þissum

Modern English 'that' descends from the neuter nominative/accusative form,[5] and 'the' from the masculine nominative form, with 's' replaced analogously by the 'th' of the other forms.[6] The feminine nominative form was possibly the source of Modern English 'she'.[7]

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative Determiner

Interrogative Inflection	Hwā/ Hwæt "what, why, who"
	Masculine/ Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	hwā	hwæt
Accusative	hwæne/ hwone
Genitive	hwæs
Dative	hwām/ hwǣm
Instrumental	hwȳ/ hwon

Personal 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 preserve the dual form, which was specifically used for groups of two things, as in "we both" and "you two"). These were common, but could optionally be substituted with the ordinary plural forms.

Personal pronouns

Case	1st person			2nd person			3rd person
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular			Plural
							Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	iċ	wit	wē	þū	ġit	ġē	hē	hit	hēo	hīe
Accusative	mē	unc	ūs	þē	inc	ēow	hine		hīe
Genitive	mīn	uncer	ūre	þīn	incer	ēower	his		hiere	hiera		heora
Dative	mē	unc	ūs	þē	inc	ēow	him			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". However, the h- in plural forms such as hīe was eventually replaced with þ- under Norse influence, yielding "they," "them," and "their."

Prepositions

Prepositions (like Modern English words by, for, and with) sometimes follow the word which they govern (especially pronouns), in which case they are called postpositions.

The following is a list of prepositions in the Old English language. Prepositions may govern the accusative, genitive, dative or instrumental cases.

Prepositions

Old English	Definition	Notes
æfter	after	Related to Frisian efter, Dutch achter ("behind"), Icelandic eftir. Ancestor of modern after.
ǣr	before	Related to German eher and Icelandic áður. Ancestor of modern ere.
æt	at	Related to Icelandic að ("to, towards"). Ancestor of modern at.
andlang	along	Related to German entlang. Ancestor of modern along. Governs the genitive.
bæftan	behind	Ancestor of modern (nautical) abaft.
be, bī	by, about	Related to West Frisian by, Low German bi, Dutch bij, German bei. Ancestor of modern by.
beforan	before	Related to German bevor. Ancestor of modern before.
beġeondan	beyond	Ancestor of modern beyond
behindan	behind	Ancestor of modern behind. Related to German hinter.
binnan	in, within	Related to German and Dutch binnen
benēoðan	beneath	Ancestor of modern beneath.
betwēonum	between	Ancestor of modern between
bufan	above	Ancestor of modern above through compound form onbufan
būtan	without, except	Related to Dutch buiten. Ancestor of modern but.
ēac	also	Related to Frisian ek, Low German ook, Dutch ook, and German auch. Ancestor of modern (archaic) eke
for	for, because of, instead of	Ancestor of modern for, related to modern German für
fram	from, by	Ancestor of modern from
ġeond	through	Ancestor of modern yonder through comparative form ġeondra. Related to Dutch ginds and (archaic) ginder
in	in	Ancestor of modern in, related to German and Latin in
innan	within	Related to modern German innen
intō	into	Ancestor of modern into
mid	with	Related to modern German mit
nēah	near	Ancestor of modern nigh. German nah
of	from, out of	Ancestor of modern of and off
ofer	over	Ancestor of modern over
on	on, in	Ancestor of modern on
onbūtan	around	Ancestor of modern about
onġēan	opposite, against; towards; in reply to	Ancestor of modern again. Related to German entgegen
oþ	until
samod	together	Related to German samt
tō	to	Ancestor of modern to, related to German zu
tōeācan	in addition to, besides
tōforan	before	Related to Dutch tevoren, German zuvor
tōgeagnes	towards, against	Related to Dutch tegen
tōweard	toward	Ancestor of modern toward
þurh	through	Ancestor of modern through. Related to German durch.
under	under	Ancestor of modern under, related to German unter
undernēoðan	underneath	Ancestor of modern underneath
uppon	upon, on	Not the ancestor of modern upon, which came from "up on".
ūtan	without, outside of	Related to modern Swedish utan, German außen. The adverbial form ūt is the ancestor of modern out.
wiþ	against	Ancestor of modern with
wiþinnan	within	Ancestor of modern within
wiþūtan	outside of	Ancestor of modern without
ymb	around	Related to modern German um and Latin ambi

Syntax

Old English syntax was similar in many ways to that of Modern English. However, there were some important differences. Some were simply consequences of the greater level of nominal and verbal inflection, and word order was generally freer. There are also differences in the default word order and in the construction of negation, questions, relative clauses and subordinate clauses.

• The default word order was verb-second and more like German than Modern English.
• There was no do-support in questions and negatives.
• Multiple negatives could stack up in a sentence and intensified each other (negative concord).
• Sentences with subordinate clauses of the type "When X, Y" did not use a wh-type word for the conjunction but used a th-type correlative conjunction (e.g., þā X, þā Y instead of "When X, Y").

Word order

There was some flexibility in word order of Old English since the heavily inflected nature of nouns, adjectives, and verbs often indicated the relationships between clause arguments. Scrambling of constituents was common. Even sometimes scrambling within a constituent occurred, as in Beowulf line 708 wrāþum on andan:

wrāþum	on	andan
hostile (Dative Singular)	on/with	malice (Dative Singular)
"with hostile malice"

Something similar occurs in line 713 in sele þām hēan "in the high hall" (lit. "in hall the high").

Extraposition of constituents out of larger constituents is common even in prose, as in the well-known tale of Cynewulf and Cyneheard, which begins

Hēr Cynewulf benam Sigebryht his rīces ond westseaxna wiotan for unryhtum dǣdum, būton Hamtūnscīre; ...

(Literally) "Here Cynewulf deprived Sigebryht of his kingdom and West Saxons' counselors for unright deeds, except Hampshire"

(translated) "Here Cynewulf and the West Saxon counselors deprived Sigebryht of his kingdom, other than Hampshire, for unjust actions"

The words ond westseaxna wiotan "and the West Saxon counselors" (lit. "and (the) counselors of (the) West Saxons") have been extraposed from (moved out of) the compound subject they belong in, in a way that would be impossible in modern English. In Old English, case inflection preserves the meaning: the verb beniman "to deprive" (appearing in this sentence in the form benam, "[he] deprived") needs a word in the genitive case to show what someone or something is deprived of, which in this sentence is rīces "of kingdom" (nominative rīce, "kingdom"), whereas wiotan "counselors" is in the nominative case and therefore serves a different role entirely (the genitive of it would be wiotana, "of counselors"); for this reason the interpretation that Cynewulf deprived Sigebryht of the West Saxon counselors was not possible for speakers of Old English. The Old English sentence still isn't in theory perfectly unambiguous, as it contains one more word in the genitive: westseaxna ("of West Saxons", nominative westseaxan "West Saxons"), and the form wiotan "counselors" may also represent the accusative case in addition to the nominative, thus for example creating the grammatical possibility of the interpretation that Cynewulf also took the West Saxons away from the counselors, but this would have been difficult to conceive.

Main clauses in Old English tend to have a verb-second (V2) order, where the finite verb is the second constituent in a sentence, regardless of what comes first. There are echoes of this in modern English: "Hardly did he arrive when ...", "Never can it be said that ...", "Over went the boat", "Ever onward marched the weary soldiers ...", "Then came a loud sound from the sky above". In Old English, however, it was much more extensive, like the word order in modern Germanic languages other than modern English. If the subject appears first, there is an SVO order, but it can also yield orders such as OVS and others. In questions VSO was common, see below.

In subordinate clauses, however, the word order is markedly different, with verb-final constructions the norm, again as in Dutch and German. Furthermore, in poetry, all the rules were frequently broken. In Beowulf, for example, main clauses frequently have verb-initial or verb-final order, and subordinate clauses often have verb-second order. (However, in clauses introduced by þā, which can mean either "when" or "then", and where word order is crucial for telling the difference, the normal word order is nearly always followed.)

Those linguists who work within the Chomskyan transformational grammar paradigm often believe that it is more accurate to describe Old English (and other Germanic languages with the same word-order patterns like modern German) as having underlying subject-object-verb (SOV) ordering. According to this theory, all sentences are initially generated using this order, but in main clauses, the verb is moved back to the V2 position (technically, the verb undergoes V-to-T raising). That is said to explain the fact that Old English allows inversion of subject and verb as a general strategy for forming questions, while modern English uses this strategy almost only with auxiliary verbs and the main verb "to be", requiring do-support in other cases.

Questions

Most of the time the word order of Old English changed when asking a question, from SVO to VSO. While many purport that Old English had free word order, this is not quite true, as there were conventions for the positioning of subject, object and verb in clause.

"I am..." becomes "Am I..."

"Ic eom..." becomes "Eom ic..."

Relative and subordinate clauses

Old English did not use forms equivalent to "who, when, where" in relative clauses (as in "The man whom I saw") or subordinate clauses ("When I got home, I went to sleep").

Instead, relative clauses used one of the following:

1. An invariable complementizer þe
2. The demonstrative pronoun se, sēo, þæt
3. The combination of the two, as in se þe

Subordinate clauses tended to use correlative conjunctions, e.g.

Þā ic hām ēode, þā slēp ic.

(word-for-word) "Then I home went, then slept I."

(translated) "When I went home, I slept."

The word order usually distinguished the subordinate clause (with verb-final order) from the main clause (with verb-second word order).

The equivalents of "who, when, where" were used only as interrogative pronouns and indefinite pronouns, as in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit.

Besides þā ... þā ..., other correlative conjunctions occurred, often in pairs of identical words, e.g.:

• þǣr X, þǣr Y: "Where X, Y"
• þanon X, þanon Y: "Whence (from where/wherefrom) X, Y"
• þider X, þider Y: "Whither (to where/whereto) X, Y"
• þēah (þe) X, þēah Y: "Although X, Y"
• þenden X, þenden Y: "While X, Y"
• þonne X, þonne Y: "Whenever X, Y"
• þæs X, þæs Y: "As/after/since X, Y"
• þȳ X, þȳ Y: "The more X, the more Y"

Phonology

Main article: Old English phonology

The phonology of Old English is necessarily somewhat speculative, since it is preserved purely as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large corpus of Old English, and the written language apparently indicates phonological alternations quite faithfully, so it is not difficult to draw certain conclusions about the nature of Old English phonology.

See also

• Middle English
• Old English phonology

References

1. Fausto Cercignani (1980). "Early 'Umlaut' Phenomena in the Germanic Languages". Language. 56 (1): 126–136. doi:10.2307/412645. JSTOR 412645.
2. Quirk, Randolph; Wrenn, Charles Leslie (1957). An Old English Grammar. London: Methuen and Co.
3. Peter S. Baker (2003). "Pronouns". The Electronic Introduction to Old English. Oxford: Blackwell. Archived from the original on September 11, 2015.
4. Page, An Introduction to English Runes, Boydell 1999, p. 230
5. "That". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
6. "The". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
7. "She". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 28 June 2010.

Sources

• Moore, Samuel, and Thomas A. Knott. The Elements of Old English. 1919. Ed. James R. Hulbert. 10th ed. Ann Arbor, Michigan: George Wahr Publishing Co., 1958.
• The Magic Sheet, one page color PDF summarizing Old English declension, from Peter S. Baker, inspired by Moore and Marckwardt's 1951 Historical Outlines of English Sounds and Inflections
• J. Bosworth & T.N. Toller, An Anglo-Saxon dictionary: Germanic Lexicon Project

Further reading

• Brunner, Karl (1965). Altenglische Grammatik (nach der angelsächsischen Grammatik von Eduard Sievers neubearbeitet) (3rd ed.). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
• Campbell, A. (1959). Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Mitchell, Bruce & Robinson, Fred (2001) A Guide to Old English; 6th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing ISBN 0-631-22636-2
• Quirk, Randolph; & Wrenn, C. L. (1957). An Old English Grammar (2nd ed.) London: Methuen.