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 a challenge for students of the language.
The classes had the following distinguishing features to their infinitive stems:
ī + 1 consonant.
ēo or ū + 1 consonant.
Originally e + 2 consonants (This was no longer the case by the time of written Old English).
e + 1 consonant (usually l or r, plus the verb ''brecan'' 'to break').
e + 1 consonant (usually a stop or a fricative).
a + 1 consonant.
No specific rule – first and second have identical stems (ē or ēo), and the infinitive and the past participle also have the same stem.
The third class went through so many sound changes that it was barely recognisable as a single class. The first was a process called 'breaking' . Before , and + another consonant, <æ> turned into , and to . Also, before + another consonant, the same happened to <æ>, but remained unchanged (except before combination ).
The second sound-change to affect it was the influence of palatal sounds , , and . These turned anteceding and <æ> to and , respectively.
Where class one verbs have gemination, class two verbs have <i> or , which is a separate syllable pronounced {Link without Title} . All class two verbs have an epenthetic vowel, which appears as or .
The dative case indicated the indirect object of the sentence, for example ''hringas þæm cyninge'' means "rings for the king" or "rings to the king". There were also several verbs which took direct objects in the dative.
The instrumental case indicated an instrument used to achieve something, for example ''lifde sweorde'', "he lived by the sword", where ''sweorde'' is the instrumental form of ''sweord''. During the Old English period, the instrumental was falling out of use, having largely merged with the dative. Only pronouns and strong adjectives retained separate forms for the instrumental.
There were different endings depending on whether the noun was in the singular (for example, ''hring'' 'one ring') or plural (for example, ''hringas'' 'many rings').
Nouns are also categorised by Grammatical Gender – masculine, feminine, or neuter. Masculine and neuter words generally share their endings. Feminine words have their own subset of endings. The plural does not distinguish between genders.
Furthermore, Old English nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak nouns are easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their declensional system. However, there is a great deal of overlap between the various classes of noun: they are not totally distinct from one another.
Strong nouns
Here are the strong declensional endings and examples for each gender:
For the '-u/–' forms above, the '-u' is used with a root consisting of a single short syllable or ending in a long syllable followed by a short syllable, while roots ending in long a syllable or two short syllables are not inflected. (A long syllable contains a long vowel or is followed by two consonants. Note also that there are some exceptions; for example, feminine nouns ending in -þu such as ''strengþu'' 'strength'.)
Note the Syncopation of the second ''e'' in ''engel'' when an ending follows. This syncopation of the vowel in the second syllable occurs with two-syllable strong nouns which have a long vowel in the first syllable and a second syllable consisting of a short vowel and single consonant (for example, ''engel'', ''wuldor'' 'glory', and ''hēafod'' 'head'). However, this syncopation is not always present, so forms such as ''engelas'' may be seen.
Weak nouns
Here are the weak declensional endings and examples for each gender:
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:
Some masculine and neuter nouns end in -e in their base form. These drop the -e and add normal endings. Note that neuter nouns in -e always have -u in the plural, even with a long vowel:
Nouns ending in -h lose this when an ending is added, and lengthen the vowel in compensation (this can result in compression of the ending as well):
Nouns whose stem ends in -w change this to -u or drop it in the nominative singular. (Note that this '-u/–' distinction depends on Syllable Weight , as for strong nouns, above.)
A few nouns follow the -u declension, with an entirely different set of endings. The following examples are both masculine, although feminines also exist, with the same endings (for example ''duru'' 'door' and ''hand'' 'hand'). Note that the '-u/–' distinction in the singular depends on syllable weight, as for strong nouns, above.
There are also some nouns of the consonant declension, which show i-umlaut in some forms.
Other such nouns include (with singular and plural nominative forms given):
Feminine: ''studu'', ''styde'' 'post' (cf. 'stud'); ''hnitu'', ''hnite'' 'nit'; ''āc'', ' 'oak'; ''gāt'', ' 'goat'; ''brōc'', ''brēc'' 'leg covering' (cf. 'breeches'); ''gōs'', ''gēs'' 'goose'; ''burg'', ''byrg'' 'city' (cf. German cities in -burg); ''dung'', ''ding'' 'prison' (cf. 'dungeon' by way of French and Frankish); ''turf'', ''tyrf'' 'turf'; ''grūt'', '''' 'meal' (cf. 'grout'); ''lūs'', '''' 'louse'; ''mūs'', '''' 'mouse'; ''neaht'', ''niht'' 'night'
Feminine with loss of -h in some forms: ''furh'', ''fyrh'' 'furrow' or 'fir'; ''sulh'', ''sylh'' 'plough'; ''þrūh'', '''' 'trough'; ''wlōh'', ''wlēh'' 'fringe'.
Feminine with compression of endings: ''cū'', '''' 'cow' (cf. dialectal plural 'kine')
Nouns of relationship
Neuter nouns with -r in plural:
Other such nouns: ''cealf'', ''cealfru'' 'calf'; ', ' 'egg' (the form 'egg' is a borrowing from Old Norse); ''cild'' 'child' has either the normal plural ''cild'' or ''cildru'' (cf. 'children', with -en from the weak nouns).
ADJECTIVES
Adjectives in Old English are declined using the same categories as nouns: five cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and two numbers (singular, plural). In addition, they can be declined either strong or weak. The weak forms are used in the presence of a definite or possessive determiner, while the strong ones are used in other situations. The weak forms are identical to those for nouns, while the strong forms use a combination of noun and pronoun endings:
For the '-u/–' forms above, the distinction is the same as for strong nouns.
Note that the same variants described above for nouns also exist for adjectives. The following example shows both the æ/a variation and the -u forms in the feminine singular and neuter plural:
The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -h:
The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -w:
DETERMINERS
Old English had two main determiners: ''se'', which could function as both 'the' or 'that', and ''þes'' for 'this'.
Modern English 'that' descends from the neuter nominative/accusative form, and 'the' from the masculine nominative form, with 's' replaced analogously by the 'th' of the other forms. The feminine nominative form was probably the source of Modern English 'she.'
PRONOUNS
Most pronouns are declined by number, case and gender; in the plural form most pronouns have only one form for all genders. Additionally, Old English pronouns reserve the dual form (which is specifically for talking about groups of two things, for example "we two" or "you two" or "they two"). These were uncommon even then, but remained in use throughout the period.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS
Many of the forms above bear strong resemblances to their contemporary English language equivalents: for instance in the genitive case ''ēower'' became "your", ''ūre'' became "our", ''mīn'' became "mine".
PREPOSITIONS
Prepositions (like Modern English words ''by'', ''for'', and ''with'') often follow the word which they govern, in which case they are called '' Postposition s''. They are not declined.
