Old English grammar

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Old English
Dialects Kentish Mercian Northumbrian West Saxon
Use Orthography (Runic alphabet, Latin alphabet) Grammar Phonology Phonological history
Literature Beowulf Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Cædmon's Hymn
History Development of Old English Influences Proto-Germanic Latin Norse Brittonic
Legacy Middle English Early Modern English Modern English Scots

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 characteristically Germanic constructions such as the umlaut.

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, the Old English inflectional system is similar to that of modern German.

Nouns, pronouns, adjectives and determiners were fully inflected with five grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), 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. 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 two 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.

The grammatical gender of 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 ƿīf "the woman/wife" was neuter. (Compare modern German die Sonne, der Mond, das Weib.) Pronominal usage could reflect either natural or grammatical gender, when it conflicted.

Morphology

Verbs

Verbs in Old English are divided into strong and 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

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

Class	Root weight	Infinitive	First preterite	Second preterite	Past participle
I	heavy	ī	ā	i
II		ēo or ū	ēa	u	o
III		see table below
IV	light	e(+r/l)	æ	ǣ	o
V		e(+other)			e
VI		a	ō		a
VII	heavy	ō, ā, ēa, a (+nC), ea (+rC/lC), occ. ǣ	ē or ēo		same as infinitive

The first preterite stem is used in the preterite, for the first- and third-person 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-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⟩).

The second sound change to affect it was the influence of palatal sounds ⟨g⟩, ⟨c⟩, and ⟨sc⟩. These turned preceding ⟨e⟩ and ⟨æ⟩ to ⟨ie⟩ and ⟨ea⟩, respectively.

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

Altogether, this split the third class into five 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. g, c, or sc + ie + two consonants.
5. 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
c	e
d	ie
e	i	a		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.

Tense/mood	Pronoun	'steal'
Infinitives		stelan
		tō stelanne
Present indicative
	ic	stele
	þū	stilst
	hē/hit/hēo	stilð
	Plural	stelaþ
Past indicative	ic/hē/hit/hēo	stæl
	þū	stǣle
	Plural	stǣlon
Present subjunctive	Singular	stele
	Plural	stelen
Past subjunctive	Singular	stǣle
	Plural	stǣlen
Imperative	Singular	stel
	Plural	stelaþ
Present participle		stelende
Past participle		(ge)stolen

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 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 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. Sƿebban "to put to sleep" is a class-one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel. Hǣlan "to heal" is a class-one verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. Sīðian "to journey" is a class-two verb.

Tense/mood	Pronoun	'put to sleep'	'heal'	'journey'
Infinitives		sƿebban	hǣlan	sīðian
		tō sƿebbanne	tō hǣlanne	tō sīðianne
Present indicative	ic	sƿebbe	hǣle	sīðie
	þū	sƿefest	hǣlst	sīðast
	hē/hit/hēo	sƿefeþ	hǣlþ	sīðað
	Plural	sƿebbaþ	hǣlaþ	sīðiað
Past indicative	ic/hē/hit/hēo	sƿefede	hǣlde	sīðode
	þū	sƿefedest	hǣldest	sīðodest
	Plural	sƿefedon	hǣldon	sīðodon
Present subjunctive	Singular	swebbe	hǣle	sīðie
	Plural	sƿebben	hǣlen	sīðien
Past subjunctive	Singular	sƿefede	hǣlde	sīðode
	Plural	sƿefeden	hǣlden	sīðoden
Imperative	Singular	sƿefe	hǣl	sīða
	Plural	sƿebbaþ	hǣlaþ	sīðiað
Present participle		sƿefende	hǣlende	sīðiende
Past participle		sƿefed	hǣled	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.

Tense/mood	Pronoun	'have'	'live'	'say'	'think'
Infinitives		habban	libban, lifgan	secgan	hycgan
		tō hæbbenne	tō libbenne	tō secgenne	tō hycgenne
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
	Plural	habbaþ	libbað	secgaþ	hycgað
Past indicative	ic/hē/hit/hēo	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
	þū	hæfdest	lifdest, leofodest	sægdest	hog(o)dest, hygdest
	Plural	hæfdon	lifdon, leofodon	sægdon	hog(o)don, hygdon
Present subjunctive	Singular	hæbbe	libbe, lifge	secge	hycge
	Plural	hæbben	libben, lifgen	secgen	hycgen
Past subjunctive	Singular	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
	Plural	hæfden	lifde, leofoden	sægden	hog(o)den, hygden
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, ƿitan, "to know" comes from a verb which originally meant "to have seen" (cf. OE ƿise "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, and the forms marked with an asterisk are unattested reconstructions, formed by analogy.

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

1. Āgan, durran, mōtan, and ƿitan
2. Cunnan, gemunan (outside the past tense), and unnan
3. Dugan, magan, and genugan
4. Sculan and þurfan

Note that 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.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'know, know how to'	'be able to, can'	'be obliged to, must'	'know'	'own'	'avail'	'dare'	'remember'	'need'	'be allowed to, may'	'grant, allow, wish'	'have use of, enjoy'
Modern descendant		can, could	may, might	shall, should	wit, wost (archaic)	owe, *aught	dow, *dight (archaic)	*dure, dare	*(i-)mune	thurf, tharf (archaic)	mote (archaic), must	*ann, ould	*(i-)now, (i-)night
Infinitives		cunnan	magan	sculan	ƿitan	āgan	dugan	*durran	*ge-munan	þurfan	*mōtan	unnan	*ge-/ *benugan
		tō cunnenne	tō magenne	tō sculenne	tō ƿitenne	tō āgenne	tō dugenne	tō durrenne	tō ge-munenne	tō þurfenne	tō mōtenne	tō unnenne	tō ge-/benugenne
Present indicative	ic/hē/hit/hēo	cann	mæg	sceal	ƿāt	āh	deah	dearr	geman	þearf	mōt	ann	geneah
	þū	canst	meaht	scealt	ƿāst	āhst	*deaht	dearst	gemanst	þearft	mōst	*anst	*geneaht
	Plural	cunnon	magon	sculon	ƿiton	āgon	dugon	durron	gemunon	þurfon	mōton	unnon	genugan
Past indicative	ic	cūðe	mihte, meahte	sceolde	ƿisse, ƿiste	āhte	dohte	dorste	gemunde	þorfte	mōste	uðe	benohte
	hē/hit/hēo		mihte
	þū	cūðest	meahtest	sceoldest	ƿissest, ƿistest	āhtest	dohtest	dorstest	gemundest	þorftest	mōstest	uðest	benohtest
	Plural	cūðon	meahton	sceoldon	ƿisson, ƿiston	*āhton	*dohton	*dorston	*gemundon	*þorfton	*mōston	uþon	*benohton
Present subjunctive	Singular	cunne	mæge	scyle	ƿite	āge	duge	durre	gemune	þurfe	mōte	unne	*genuge
	Plural	cunnen	mægen	scylen	ƿiten	*āgen	*dugen	*durren	gemunen	*þurfen	mōten	*unnen	*genugen
Past subjunctive	Singular	cūðe	mihte	sceolde	ƿisse, ƿiste	*āhte	*dohte	*dorste	gemunde	*þorfte	*mōste	*uðe	*benohte
	Plural	cūðen	mihten	sceolden	*ƿissen, ƿisten	*āhten	*dohten	*dorsten	gemunden	*þorften	*mōsten	*uþen	*benohten
Imperative	Singular	cunne	mæge	scyle	ƿite	āge	duge	durre	gemune	þurfe	mōte	unne	*genuge
	Plural	cunnaþ	mægaþ	scylaþ	ƿitaþ	āgaþ	dugaþ	durraþ	gemunaþ	þurfaþ	mōtaþ	unnaþ	*genugaþ
Present participle		cunnende	mægende	sculende	ƿitende	*āgende	*dugende	*durrende	*gemunende	*þurfende	mōtende	*unnende	*genugende
Past participle		cunnen/(ge)cūþ	mægen	sculen	(ge)ƿiten	*(ge)āgen	*dugen	*dorren	*munen	*þurfen	mōten	*unnen	*nugen

Anomalous verbs

Additionally, there is a further group of four verbs which are anomalous: "want" (modern "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: "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; ƿillan 'to want' is similar outside of the present tense.

Tense/mood	Pronoun	'do'	'go'	'will'
Infinitives		dōn	gān	ƿillan
		tō dōnne	tō gānne	tō willanne
Present indicative	ic	dō	gā	ƿille
	þū	dēst	gǣst	ƿilt
	hē/hit/hēo	dēð	gǣð	ƿile
	Plural	dōð	gāð	ƿillað
Past indicative	ic/hē/hit/hēo	dyde	ēode	ƿolde
	þū	dydest	ēodest	ƿoldest
	Plural	dydon	ēodon	ƿoldon
Present subjunctive	Singular	dō	gā	ƿille
	Plural	dōn	gān	ƿillen
Past subjunctive	Singular	dyde	ēode	ƿolde
	Plural	dyde	ēode	ƿolde
Imperative	Singular	dō	gā	ƿille
	Plural	dōþ	gāþ	ƿillaþ
Present participle		dōnde	*gānde	ƿillende
Past participle		gedōn	gegān	*geƿillan

The verb 'to be' is actually composed of three different stems:

Tense/mood	Pronoun	sindon	ƿesan	bēon
Infinitive		sindon	ƿesan	bēon
Present indicative	ic	eom	ƿese	bēo
	þū	eart	ƿesst	bist
	hē/hit/hēo	is	ƿes(t)	bið
	Plural	sind(on)	ƿesað	bēoð
Past indicative	ic/hē/hit/hēo	ƿǣs
	þū	ƿǣre
	Plural	ƿǣron
Present subjunctive	Singular	sīe	ƿese	bēo
	Plural	sīen	ƿesen	bēon
Past subjunctive	Singular	ƿǣre
	Plural	ƿǣren
Imperative	Singular	ƿes		bēo
	Plural	ƿesað		bēoð
Present participle		*sindonde	ƿesende	bēonde
Past participle		*gesindon	*geƿeson	gebēon

The present forms of ƿesan are almost never used. Therefore, ƿesan is used as the past, imperative, and present participle versions of sindon, and does not have a separate meaning. The bēon forms are usually used in reference to future actions. Only the present forms of bēon contrast with the present forms of sindon/ƿesan in that bēon tends to be used to refer to eternal or permanent truths, while sindon/ƿesan is used more commonly to refer to temporary or subjective facts. This semantic distinction (made only during the present tense) was lost as Old English developed into modern English, so that the modern verb 'to be' is a single verb which takes its present indicative forms from sindon, its past indicative forms from ƿesan, its present subjunctive forms from bēon, its past subjunctive forms from ƿesan, and its imperative and participle forms from bēon. (Modern German had an analogous, but even more complicated, development for its verb sein.) In late OE and ME, the form earon/earun, from the Old Norse erun, replaced bēoþ and sind (See also List of English words of Old Norse origin).

Nouns

Old English is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, adjectives and determiners must be declined 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, there are 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: 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; To whom or for whom the object was meant. For example: hringas þæm 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 sƿeorde, "he lived by the sword", where sƿeorde is the instrumental form of sƿeord. 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").

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 their endings, while feminine words have their own subset of endings. The plural of some declension types distinguishes between genders, e.g., a-stem masculine nominative plural stanas "stones" vs. neuter nominative plural scipu "ships" and word "words"; or i-stem masculine nominative plural sige(as) "victories" vs. neuter nominative plural sifu "sieves" and hilt "hilts".

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.

Strong nouns

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

Case	Masculine		Neuter		Feminine
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	–	-as	–	-u/–	-u/–	-a
Accusative					-e	-a/-e
Genitive	-es	-a	-es	-a		-a
Dative	-e	-um	-e	-um		-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. 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					sorge	sorga/sorge
Genitive	engles	engla	scipes	scipa		sorga
Dative	engle	englum	scipe	scipum		sorgum

Note the syncope of the second e in engel when an ending follows. This syncope 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, ƿuldor 'glory', and hēafod 'head'). However, this syncope 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:

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	-a	-e		-an
Accusative	-an		-e
Genitive	-an			-ena
Dative	-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				tungan
Genitive	naman	namena	ēagan	ēagena	tungan	tungena
Dative		namum		ēagum		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 (a result of the phonological phenomenon known as Anglo-Frisian brightening):

Example: dæg 'day' (masculine)

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	dæg	dagas
Accusative
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 stȳle 'steel'
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ende	endas	stȳle	stȳlu
Accusative
Genitive	endes	enda	stȳles	stȳla
Dative	ende	endum	stȳle	stȳlum

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	mēaras	feorh		scōh	scōs
Accusative
Genitive	mēares	mēara	fēores	fēora	scōs	scōna
Dative	mēare	mēarum	fēore	fēorum	scō	scōm

Nouns whose stem ends in -ƿ 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 -ƿ

Case	Neuter smeoru 'grease'		Feminine sinu 'sinew'		Feminine lǣs 'pasture'
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	smeoru		sinu	sinƿa	lǣs	lǣsƿa
Accusative			sinƿe	sinƿa, -e	lǣsƿe	lǣsƿa, -e
Genitive	smeorƿes	smeorƿa		sinƿa		lǣsƿa
Dative	smeorƿe	smeorƿum		sinƿum		lǣsƿum

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
Genitive	suna		felda
Dative	suna	sunum	felda	feldum

Mutating strong nouns

There are also some nouns of the consonant declension, which show i-umlaut in some forms.

Example of the strong noun declensions with i-shift

Case	Masculine fōt 'foot'		Feminine hnutu 'nut'		Feminine bōc 'book'
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fōt	fēt	hnutu	hnyte	bōc	bēc
Accusative
Genitive	fōtes	fōta	hnyte, hnute	hnuta	bēc, bōce	bōca
Dative	fēt, fōte	fōtum		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, ǣc 'oak'; gāt, gǣt 'goat'; brōc, brēc 'leg covering' (cf. 'breeches'); gōs, gēs 'goose'; burg, byrg 'city' (cf. 'borough', '-bury' and German cities in -burg); dung, dyng 'prison' (cf. 'dungeon' by way of French and Frankish); turf, tyrf 'turf'; grūt, grȳt 'meal' (cf. 'grout'); lūs, lȳs 'louse'; mūs, mȳs 'mouse'; neaht, niht 'night' Feminine with loss of -h in some forms: furh, fyrh 'furrow' or 'fir'; sulh, sylh 'plough'; þrūh, þrȳh 'trough'; ƿlōh, ƿlēh 'fringe'. Feminine with compression of endings: cū, cȳ 'cow' (cf. dialectal plural 'kine')

Neuter: In addition, scrūd 'clothing, garment' has the umlauted dative-singular form scrȳd.

Nouns of relationship

Nouns of relationship

Case	Masculine fæder 'father'		Masculine brōðor 'brother'		Feminine mōdor 'mother'		Feminine sƿeostor 'sister'		Feminine dohtor 'daughter'
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative-Accusative	fæder	fæd(e)ras	brōðor	(ge)brōðor	mōdor	mōdra/mōdru	sƿeostor	(ge)sƿeostor, -tru, -tra	dohtor
Genitive		fæd(e)ra		(ge)brōðra		mōdra		(ge)sƿeostra	dohtor	dohtra
Dative		fæderum	brēðer	(ge)brōðrum	mēder	mōdrum		(ge)sƿeostrum	dehter	dohtrum

Neuter nouns with -r- in the plural

Example: lamb 'lamb' (neuter)

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative-Accusative	lamb	lambru
Genitive	lambes	lambra
Dative	lambe	lambrum

Other such nouns: ǣg, ǣgru egg (ancestor of the archaic or dialectal form ey, plural eyren; the form egg is a borrowing from Old Norse); bread, breadru 'crumb'; cealf, cealfru 'calf'; cild 'child' has either the normal plural cild or cildru (cf. 'children', with -en from the weak nouns); hǣmed, hǣmedru 'cohabitation'; speld, speldru 'torch'.

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	Singular			Plural
	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter		Feminine	Masculine
Nominative	-u/–	–	–	-u/–	-e, -a	-e
Accusative	-e	-ne
Genitive	-re	-es		-ra
Dative		-um
Instrumental		-e		-um

For the '-u/–' forms above, the distinction is the same as for strong nouns.

Example of the strong adjective declension: gōd 'good'

Case	Singular			Plural
	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter		Feminine	Masculine
Nominative	gōd				gōde, -a	gōde
Accusative	gōde	gōdne	gōd
Genitive	gōdre	gōdes		gōdra
Dative		gōdum
Instrumental		gōde		gōdum

Example of the weak adjective declension: gōd 'good'

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	gōda	gōde		gōdan
Accusative	gōdan		gōde
Genitive	gōdan			gōdena
Dative				gōdum
Instrumental

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	Singular			Plural
	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine
Nominative	gladu	glæd	glæd	glade, -a	gladu	glade
Accusative	glade		glædne
Genitive	glædre	glades		glædra
Dative		gladum
Instrumental		glade		gladum

The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -h:

Example of the strong adjective declension: hēah 'high'

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	hēah		hēa
Accusative	hēane	hēah
Genitive	hēas		hēare	hēara
Dative	hēam			hēam
Instrumental	hēa

The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -ƿ:

Example of the strong adjective declension: gearu 'ready'

Case	Singular			Plural
	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter		Masculine-Feminine
Nominative	gearu				gearƿe
Accusative	gearƿe	gearone	gearu
Genitive	gearore	gearƿes		gearora
Dative		gearƿum
Instrumental		gearƿe		gearƿum

Definite articles and demonstratives

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

the/that/those

Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	se	þæt	sēo	þā
Accusative	þone		þā
Genitive	þæs		þǣre	þāra, þǣra
Dative	þǣm			þǣm, þām
Instrumental	þȳ, þon		*þāra	*þǣm

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 possibly the source of Modern English 'she'.

this/these/yon

Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	þes	þis	þēos	þās
Accusative	þisne		þās
Genitive	þisses		þisse, þisre	þisra
Dative	þissum			þissum
Instrumental	þȳs		*þīes	*þīos

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 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.

First person

Case	Singular	Plural	Dual
Nominative	ic, īc	ƿē	ƿit
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	þec, þē	ēoƿic, ēoƿ	incit, inc
Genitive	þīn	ēoƿer	incer
Dative	þē	ēoƿ	inc

Third person

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	hē	hit	hēo	hīe	hēo
Accusative	hine		hīe		hīo
Genitive	his		hire	hiera	heora
Dative	him			him

Many of the forms above bear strong resemblances to their contemporary English language equivalents: for instance in the genitive case ēoƿer became "your", ūre became "our", mīn became "mine". Some forms do not match their modern equivalents due to dissimilation. The feminine nominative hēo was at some point replaced with the feminine nominative article sēo, yielding "she"; whereas the h in plural forms such as hīe was replaced with þ under Norse influence as it evolved (a slower development that was not complete until well into the Middle English period), yielding "they, them, their".

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, if the object of a preposition was marked in the dative case, a preposition may conceivably be located anywhere in the sentence.

The following is a list of prepositions in the Old English language. Many of them, particularly those marked "etc.", are found in other variant spellings. Prepositions may govern the accusative, genitive, dative or instrumental cases.

Prepositions

Old English	Definition	Notes
æfter	after; along, through, during; according to, by means of; about	Ancestor of modern after; related to Dutch achter = behind, after
ǣr	before	Related to modern German eher and Dutch (vooral)eer, ancestor of modern ere
æt	at, to, before, next, with, in, for, against; unto, as far as	Ancestor of modern at
and	against, before, on	Related to Dutch aan (e.g. tegenaan)
andlang	along	Ancestor of modern along, related to modern German entlang
beæftan	after, behind; without	Ancestor of modern (nautical) abaft
be, bī	by, near to, to, at, in, on, upon, about, with; of, from, about, touching, concerning; for, because of, after, by, through, according to; beside, out of	Related to modern German bei, ancestor of modern by
befōran	before	Ancestor of modern before, related to modern German bevor
begeondan	beyond	Ancestor of modern beyond
behindan	behind	Ancestor of modern behind, related to modern German hinter
beinnan	in, within	Related to modern German and Dutch binnen
beneoðan	beneath	Ancestor of modern beneath, cf. Dutch beneden
betƿeonum, betƿeox, etc.	betwixt, between, among, amid, in the midst.	Ancestors of modern between and betwixt respectively
bīrihte	near
būfan	above	Ancestor of modern above through compound form onbúfan
būtan	out of, against; without, except	Related to modern Dutch buiten
eāc	with, in addition to, besides	Related to modern German auch and Dutch ook, ancestor of modern (archaic) eke
for	for, on account of, because of, with, by; according to; instead of.	Ancestor of modern for, related to modern German für
fōr, fōre	before	Related to modern German vor, bevor and Dutch voor
fram	from; concerning, about, of	Ancestor of modern from
gemang	among	Ancestor of modern among
geond	through, throughout, over, as far as, among, in, after, beyond	Ancestor of modern yonder through comparative form geondra. Related to Dutch ginds and (archaic) ginder
in	in, on; into, to	Ancestor of modern in, related to German and Latin in
innan	in, into, within, from within	Related to modern German innen
intō	into	Ancestor of modern into
mid	with, against	Ancestor of modern amid through related form onmiddan (cf. Dutch onmiddellijk), related to modern German mit
neāh	near	Ancestor of modern nigh. Dutch naar (via nader), German nah(e)
nefne	except
of	of, from, out of, off	Ancestor of modern of and off
ofer	above, over; upon, on; throughout; beyond, more than	Ancestor of modern over
on	on; in, at	Ancestor of modern on
onbūtan	about	Ancestor of modern about
ongeagn, etc.	opposite, against; towards; in reply to	Ancestor of modern again. Related to German entgegen
onuppan	upon, on
oþ	to, unto, up to, as far as	Related to Dutch and Frisian op and to modern German auf
samod	with, at	Related to modern German samt, mitsamt
tō	to, at	Ancestor of modern to, related to modern German zu
tōeācan	in addition to, besides
tōforan	before	Related to Dutch tevoren, German zuvor
tōgeagnes	towards, against	Related to Dutch tegen
tōmiddes	in the midst of, amidst	Related to Dutch temidden
tōƿeard	toward	Ancestor of modern toward
þurh	through	Related to modern German durch, ancestor of modern through
ufenan	above, besides
under	under	Ancestor of modern under, related to modern German unter
underneoþan	underneath	Ancestor of modern underneath
uppan	upon, on	Not the ancestor of modern upon, which came from "up on".
ūtan	without, outside of	Related to modern Swedish utan, Dutch uit and German außen, außer. The adverbial form ūt is the ancestor of modern out.
ƿið	towards, to; with, against; opposite to; by, near	Ancestor of modern with
ƿiðæftan	behind
ƿiðer	against	Related to modern German wider
ƿiðinnan	within	Ancestor of modern within
ƿiðforan	before
ƿiðūtan	without, outside of	Ancestor of modern without
ymb, ymbe	about, by	Related to modern German um and Latin ambi
ymbūtan	about, around; concerning

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 Beoƿulf line 708 ƿrāþum on andan:

ƿrāþum	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 Cyneƿulf and Cyneheard, which begins

Hēr Cyneƿulf benam Sigebryht his rīces ond Ƿestseaxna ƿiotan for unryhtum dǣdum, būton Hamtūnscīre; ...

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

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

Note how the words ond Ƿestseaxna ƿiotan "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 totally impossible in modern English. Case marking helps somewhat: ƿiotan "counselors" can be nominative or accusative but definitely not genitive, which is the case of rīces "kingdom" and the case governed by benam "deprived"; hence, Cyneƿulf can't possibly have deprived Sigebryht of the West Saxon counselors, as the order suggests.

Main clauses in Old English tend to have a verb-second (V2) order, where the 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 German. 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 completely different, with verb-final constructions the norm, again as in German. Furthermore, in poetry, all the rules were frequently broken. In Beoƿulf, 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

Because of its similarity with Old Norse, it is believed that 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, þat
3. The combination of the two, as in se þe

Preposition-fronting ("The man with whom I spoke") did not normally occur.

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

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.