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IMPORTANT FEATURES OF OLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR
NOUNS
Masculine a-stems: These nouns originally had an –a at the
end of the stems, lost in OE. These account for the
largest group (40%); important since this group (and this
group only) formed its nominative and accusative plurals
with –as and its genitive singular with –es. Eventually, in
Middle English (ME), we’ll see this class expand.
Nominative and accusative: sg: stān
Genitive (possessive):
stānes
Dative (“to” someone or thing): stāne


pl: stānas
stāna
stānum
Note here the –s plural, the genitive with –es, and
the dative plural with –um. This nasal ending in the
dative plural is typical of all OE noun declensions.
We still say “to whom” or “to him.”
The dative sing. ending –e survives in the spelling
(final vowel)and pronunciation ([v] not [f]) in alive
coming from OE on life.
Neuter a-stems: In these the nominative and accusative
plural often had no ending. So, we get deor (deer or
animal), which declines exactly like stān except in the
nom. and acc. plural, where we get deor in both cases.
 This explains why we have Present Day English (PDE)
sing. and pl. deer. Further, by semantic analogy,
other animal nouns were attracted to this class. The
word fisc (fish), for example, originally was a
masculine a-stem, but was drawn to the neuter animal
nouns. We still hear some folks occasionally say
“fishes.” Such speakers are historically correct, but
this ending is generally considered unacceptable.
Consonantal or n-stems: These are often called weak nouns,
by analogy with the formation of weak adjectives.
 Any noun with the nom. sg. ending –a is a weak noun or
n-stem.
 All other cases have the ending –an except gen. pl. ena (namena) and dative pl. –um (as is typical).
 This group survives in PDE pl. oxen. Hundreds of
others, such as ME (remember this is Middle English,
not Modern English)eyen.

Cild belonged to a small group of nouns called r-stems
(with the r coming from z by way of rhotacism, so in
Germanic these are called z-stems). The r can still
be seen in the OE nom./accusative plural cildru. In
the development of this plural, children formed out of
analogy to the n-stems. That’s how it got the –n
ending. You might compare brethren as an alternative
form to brothers.
Mutated Plurals: In this declension, the endings exerted a
direct influence on the stem vowel and caused what we call
fronting or i-mutation, which is one of the most common
sound changes affecting nouns and can be seen in pairs such
as strength vs. strong.
 What caused i-mutation was the presence of an i in
prehistoric OE. It is important to note that this
change did not indicate plurality necessarily in OE.
The -i was there in the nom./acc. plural as well as in
the DATIVE SINGULAR. Therefore, we get e rather than
o in these forms.
 Man vs. men, foot vs. feet, tooth vs. teeth (OE toþ)
 The genitive plural, as in stān, was –a, so we get
fota. We still have this form in PDE in the
adjectival five-foot long, which basically means “five
of foot” long—an OE genitive of reference or measure
(five in reference to foot). Latin has the same
construction in satis pecuniae, which means “enough of
money.” Similarly, we say “five-mile hike,” not “five
miles hike.”
Verbal Nouns and participles: The present progressive verb
tense (“be” + verb + ing in “I am hunting”) was simply
expressed by the present tense: I hunt. The current –ing
verb tenses came from the verbal noun: OE Ic ēom on
huntunge (with dative –e ending), which means, “I am a
hunting” like we have in “A hunting I will go, a hunting I
will go. Hi ho the merry-o, a hunting I will go.” So, you
can see how this became the PDE progressive. OE did have a
present participle, but the ending was –ende. This lasted
into ME (remember this means Middle English). Here are
some samples:
Ealle niht ic stande ofer hie
waciende for eofum
All night I stand over them
watching for thieves.
wel sprecende ond yfele
þencende
well speaking and evil
thinking
The past participle had ge- added. So we have smeocan (smoke), smeac (smoked),
smucan (they smoked) and gesmocen (He got smoked). This prefix still survives in
dialect, as in “Farmer Smith has a-hauled off and a-gone and plowed a new plot.” It
also makes it’s way to the present participle and other places, as my mother etched
in my mind when I was but a wee lad: “When I get a- hold (ge-hold) of you, I’m agonna (ge-gonna) wear out your britches.” Sometimes she’d just say “wear you
out,” which is another interesting development of “wear” (OE wearian, “to wear”),
but we’ll save that. Ge- was basically an intensifier, and, apparently, the past
participle needed some intensifying—and still does in certain places.
OE DEMONSTRATIVES
The modern definite article the developed from the
masc./sing./nom. þe, earlier se. Neuter nom./acc. þæt
remains as a singular demonstrative.
The early plural of the/that, þa, has been lost; in ME
learner confusion led to the borrowing of the original
plural of demonstrative þis “this,” which was þas; hence
that with a plural those is historically incorrect; in
Middle English comes a new plural these to go with this.
This is all totally arbitrary.

OE se, þæt, sēo (masc./neuter/feminine) = “the, that.”
The plural was þa. So, historically, we are incorrect
if we say, “That bag belongs to Ms. Jones; those
belong to the women who are still here.” “Those” goes
with “this.”

OE þes, þis, þeos (masc./neuter/feminine) = “this.”
The plural was þas, meaning “those” once again. So,
historically speaking, we ought to say “this, those,”
not “this, these.”

PDE makes a definite distinction out of what had been
variants in OE. Here’s a usage note from American
Heritage:
That is sometimes prescribed as the better
choice in referring to what has gone before. . .
. When the referent is yet to be mentioned, only
this is used: This is what bothers me.
ADJECTIVES
Weak and Strong: In OE, you could say “þā ealdan menn”
(weak-“the old men”) or just “ealde menn” (strong). Two
entire sets of inflectional endings, strong and weak,
developed depending on the absence or presence of a
demonstrative, or possessive.

Weak: þā blindan menn and have –an endings for the
most part.
 Strong: blinde man and have blindne (Acc), blindum
(Dat), etc.
Or: dol bearn (foolish child) or dolu bearn (foolish
children) in
the neuter.
Comparative:
 -ra and superlative –ost were usual patterns: lēof
(dear), lēofra (dearer), and lēofost (dearest)
 a few had –est< earlier –ist, and this -i results in
umlaut of the stem vowel: Anglian ald (old), eldest
(oldest). Thus, we have old, but elder and eldest,
with that back vowel [o] being dragged up to the front
by the -i.
ADVERBS



Normal OE adverb ending was simply –e. At the end of
14th century, this ending was lost with all other –e
endings. Thus, PDE slow and easy is more historically
correct than –ly forms: “Take it slow and easy.” The
same is true for loud, deep, and beautiful in a
statement like “He did just beautiful.”
The ending –ly comes from OE –lic, meaning “like,” so
“quick-like” is historically as correct as “quickly.”
“He worked days and nights” comes from OE genitive in
which nihtes is a genitive singular.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS

Dual forms: wit, unc, uncer. These are gradually
lost.

They forms: the th- comes from Scandinavian. Hforms are OE. Note that ‘em comes from OE dative
pl. “him” and
is more historically accurate than Scandinavian.

Grammatical Gender: Can’t forget this. Bearn is
neuter; therefore, an “it” (OE hit).

The possessive pronouns were simply min (mine),
hiera (their) or eower (your). PDE has possessive
adjectives my
and their, your plus the possessive pronouns mine,
theirs, yours. Thus, we say “what’s mine is yours,”
but “that is
my book and this is your/their book.”
VERBS


Highly inflected in present/past tenses; two one-word
tenses
Much higher proportion of strong verbs in seven
classes. PDE has help/helped. OE had helpan (to
help), healp (he/she/it helped), hulpon (they helped)
and geholpen (helped—past participle). The dialectical
“I holp him” is therefore close to being historically
correct. Pattern is that strong verbs decrease as
weak verbs become more numerous. Reason: the weak
system, with the use of dental suffixes to make the
past, is more consistent. That’s why children
learning a language will put –ed on strong verbs:
“Johnny and me swimmed in the pool.” You will also
hear this in dialect: “That grass growed and growed
in my garden when we got all that rain.” Such
speakers are just being logical.
Exceptions like OE werian (to wear) and
hringan (to ring,
were originally weak,
but have become strong in PDE.


Past participle has ge- prefix, which gets schwa-ed
(erodes to schwa?) and becomes a- in “He’s a-gone to
the store and will be back directly.” This “a-gone”
is more historically correct, if no longer acceptable.
See above under participles.
Verb “to be” is SUPPLETIVE: Paradigm combines
historically unrelated forms of was/were, be, is and
am. Verb gān is also suppletive, with preterit ēode.
We have go/went (from wend).