Wikipǣdia:Old English Grammar

Purpose

This page is to provide a reference grammar for users of this wiki, so they can provide readers with high quality Old English text.

Cases

1. Nominative

• Case of the subject of the sentence. Also the case of the copula (noun after be, become)
  • John is here. John is nominative.
  • John is a king. John and king are both nominative.

1. Genitive

• Case of ownership. The King's house - the king's is in the genitive. The house of the man - of the man is in the genitive
• Note that of is a dative preposition in Old English, and does not indicate possession.

1. Dative

• Case of giving to/doing for; the Indirect Object
  • I give him the wheel. Him is in the dative case.
  • I give a car to Mark. To Mark is in the dative case.

1. Instrumental

• Case indicating means, instrument
  • I hit him with the hammer. With the hammer is instrumental

1. Accusative

• Case indicating direct object.
  • I see John. John is the direct object, in the accusative case.
  • I have the ring. The ring is in the accusative case.

Nouns

Nouns are words indicating a person, place, animal, or thing. They have a grammatical gender, which merely indicates how the noun is declined.

Masculine Nouns

Masculine nouns take se, and often indicate masculine beings.

the/that
Case	Article/Ending	Mod.E.	Article/Ending	Mod.E.
Nominative	se -	the -	þā -as	the -s
Genitive	þæs -es	of the -, the -'s	þāra -a	of the -s, the -s'
Dative	þǣm -e	to/for the -	þǣm -um	to/for the -s
Instrumental	þȳ -e	by means of the -	þǣm -um	by means of the -s
Accusative	þone -	the -	þā -as	the -s

These endings cover about 64% of all masculine nouns.

Masculine nouns ending in -a

Typically called "weak" nouns, these masculine nouns simply add -n to form other cases.

the/that
Case	Article/Ending	Mod.E.	Article/Ending	Mod.E.
Nominative	se -	the -	þā -an	the -s
Genitive	þæs -an	of the -, the -'s	þāra -ena	of the -s, the -s'
Dative	þǣm -an	to/for the -	þǣm -um	to/for the -s
Instrumental	þȳ, þon -an	by means of the -	þǣm -um	by means of the -s
Accusative	þone -an	the -	þā -an	the -s

Masculine Noun Suffixes

Hād

Masculine nouns with the suffix hād added to them.

the/that
Case	Article/Ending	Mod.E.	Article/Ending	Mod.E.
Nominative	se -hād	the -	þā -hāda	the -s
Genitive	þæs -hāda	of the -, the -'s	þāra -hāda	of the -s, the -s'
Dative	þǣm -hāda	to/for the -	þǣm -hādum	to/for the -s
Instrumental	þȳ, þon -hāda	by means of the -	þǣm -hādum	by means of the -s
Accusative	þone -hād	the -	þā -hāda	the -s

Neuter Nouns

Neuter nouns include those nouns which take þæt as an article. That is the main difference between neuter and masculine nouns, besides having either no plural inflection, or u.

the/that
Case	Article/Ending	Mod.E.	Article/Ending	Mod.E.
Nominative	þæt -	the -	þā -/-u	the -s
Genitive	þæs -es	of the -, the -'s	þāra -a	of the -s, the -s'
Dative	þǣm -e	to/for the -	þǣm -um	to/for the -s
Instrumental	þȳ -e	by means of the -	þǣm -um	by means of the -s
Accusative	þæt -	the -	þā -/-u	the -s

Feminine Nouns

Feminine nouns typically describe feminine beings, and those things which take sēo as an article.

the/that
Case	Article/Ending	Mod.E.	Article/Ending	Mod.E.
Nominative	sēo -	the -	þā -a	the -s
Genitive	þǣre -e	of the -, the -'s	þāra -a	of the -s, the -s'
Dative	þǣre -e	to/for the -	þǣm -um	to/for the -s
Instrumental	þǣre -e	by means of the -	þǣm -um	by means of the -s
Accusative	þā -e	the -	þā -a	the -s

Feminine Noun suffixes

Feminine Nouns ending in -ung

Have the same endings as regular feminine nouns.

Articles

Determiners

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

the/that
Case	Mod.E.	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	the	se	þæt	sēo	þā
Genitive	of the	þæs	þæs	þǣre	þāra
Dative	to/for the	þǣm	þǣm	þǣre	þǣm
Instrumental	by means of the	þȳ, þon	þȳ, þon	þǣre	þǣm
Accusative	the	þone	þæt	þā	þā

Modern English 'that' descends from the neuter nominative/accusative form, and 'the' from the plural nominative/accusative form. The feminine nominative form was probably the source of Modern English 'she.'

this
Case	Mod.E.	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	this	þes	þis	þēos	þās
Genitive	this x's of this	þisses	þisses	þisse, þisre	þissa, þisra
Dative	to/for this	þissum	þissum	þisse, þisre	þissum
Instrumental	by means of this	þȳs	þȳs	–	–
Accusative	this	þisne	þis	þās	þās

Pronouns

First Person
Case	Mod.E.	Singular	Mod.E.	Dual	Mod.E.	Plural
Nominative	I	ic	we two	wit	we	wē
Genitive	my, mine, of me	mīn	of us two	uncer	our, of us	ūser
Dative	to/for me	mē	to/for us two	unc	to/for us	ūs
Accusative	me	mec	us two	uncit	us	ūsic

Second Person
Case	Mod.E.	Singular	Mod.E.	Dual	Mod.E.	Plural
Nominative	thou	þu	you two	git	ye	gē
Genitive	thy, thine, of thee	þīn	your two, of you two	incer	your, of you	ēower
Dative	to/for thee	þē	to/for you two	inc	to/for you	ēow
Accusative	thee	þec	you two	incit	you	ēowic

Third Person
Case	Mod.E.	Masc.S.	Mod.E.	Neut.S.	Mod.E.	Fem.S.	Mod.E.	Plural
Nominative	he	hē	it	hit	she	hēo	they	hīe
Genitive	his, of his	his	its, of it	his	her, of her	hire	their, of them	hira
Dative	to/for him	him	to/for it	him	to/for her	hire	to/for them	him
Accusative	him	hine	it	hit	her	hīe	them	hīe

Declensions of Genitive Pronouns

The genitives mīn, þīn, sīn, ūser, ēower, uncer, and incer decline like strong adjectives, showing the case and gender corresponding to that of the noun which they describe. The genitives his, hire, and hira do not inflect in any way to show case and gender. So, you will see:

Possessive Declension
Case	Masculine S.	Neuter S.	Feminine S.	Masculine P.	Neuter P.	Feminine P.
Nominative	mīn	mīn	mīn	mīne	mīn	mīna
Genitive	mīnes	mīnes	mīnre	mīnra	mīnra	mīnra
Dative	mīnum	mīnum	mīnre	mīnum	mīnum	mīnum
Instrumental	mīne	mīne	mīnre	mīnum	mīnum	mīnum
Accusative	mīnne	mīn	mīne	mīne	mīn	mīna

So to are þīn and sīn declined. Notice, the masculine, feminine, and neuter have no ending in the nominative (subject) case, and the masculine/neuter share the same genitive/dative forms in the singular. In the plural, the nominative/accusative are the same for masculine, feminine, and neuter.

After the words, mīn, þīn, sīn, ūser, ēower, uncer, incer, his, hire, and hira you will have weak adjective declensions. So, mīn gōda cyning, and not mīn gōd cyning.

Question Words

1. Who, what
   1. This agrees with the gender of the noun to which it refers, whether masculine/feminine, or neuter. Since there's only singular, that serves for the plural as well.

who/what
Case	Mod.E.	Masc/Fem	Mod.E.	Neuter
Nominative	who?	hwā	what?	hwæt
Genitive	whose?, of whom?	hwæs	whose?, of what?	hwæs
Dative	to/for whom	hwǣm	to/for what?	hwǣm
Instrumental	by means of whom	hwȳ, hwon	by means of what?	hwȳ, hwon
Accusative	whom?	hwone	what?	hwæt

1. Which of two?

which of two?
Case	Masculine S.	Neuter S.	Feminine S.	Masculine P.	Neuter P.	Feminine P.
Nominative	hwæðer	hwæðer	hwæðer	hwæðre	hwæðer	hwæðra
Genitive	hwæðres	hwæðres	hwæðerre	hwæðerra	hwæðerra	hwæðerra
Dative	hwæðrum	hwæðrum	hwæðerre	hwæðrum	hwæðrum	hwæðrum
Instrumental	hwæðere	hwæðere	hwæðerre	hwæðrum	hwæðrum	hwæðrum
Accusative	hwæðerne	hwæðer	hwæðre	hwæðre	hwæðer	hwæðra

1. Which of many?

which of many?
Case	Masculine S.	Neuter S.	Feminine S.	Masculine P.	Neuter P.	Feminine P.
Nominative	hwilc	hwilc	hwilc	hwilce	hwilc	hwilca
Genitive	hwilces	hwilces	hwilcre	hwilcra	hwilcra	hwilcra
Dative	hwilcum	hwilcum	hwilcre	hwilcum	hwilcum	hwilcum
Instrumental	hwilce	hwilce	hwilcre	hwilcum	hwilcum	hwilcum
Accusative	hwilcne	hwilc	hwilce	hwilce	hwilc	hwilca

1. Where?
   1. To where?
   2. From where?

Verbs

Active/Passive

The only surviving passive form in Old English is the verb hātte - am called. Otherwise, it was formed in one of three ways:

1. Using the pronoun man (one, someone, they, people) as the subject
2. Using weorðan - become for activities and changes of state
3. Using bēon/wesan - be for the resultant states

Syntax

Until I can organize it further, this will be a general syntax section.

Verb/Noun Agreement

• Verbs with a decade as the subject tend to be singular.
  • Example: Fīftig wæs ofslagen - fifty were slain.
  • Example: In Egyptum wearþ on ānre nihte fīftig manna ofslagen - In Egypt, fifty men were slain in one night. (The verb is singular in OE, but plural in Modern English)

Use of Se/Þes

• The word se (the/that) was used differently than in modern English
  • Example: Hēr Cynewulf benam Sigebryht his rīces...and se Cynewulf oft miclum gefeohtum feaht wiþ Bretwalum - In this year Cynewulf deposed Sigebriht...and this Cynewulf often waged mighty battles against the Welsh.

Uses of the Subjunctive

• In negative because clauses, the verb is subjunctive. (But in positive ones, it's still indicative)
• Example: ac þæs wundrodon menn, nā for þȳ þæt hīe māre wundor wǣre, ac for þȳ þæt hit wæs ungewunelic - but people wondered about that, not because it was a greater mystery, but because it was unaccustomed.
• In this sentence, the first because-clause is subjunctive because the proposition is denied, but the second is indicative because it was the real reason for the wonderment.

Special Phrases

• to consist of - bēon/onstandan on w.d.; þæt biþ on dēora fellum - that consists of animals' fur.

Use of Passive

• Don't. That's a little easy, but in OE, they used the pronoun man (not the noun mann with 2 n's) and the regular verb.
  • Man seah þone catt - one saw the cat, or the cat was seen.
• You can also use biþ+past participle and fram+person or þurh+concept to form the passive, but this is less used as a passive and more as a statement of what is.
  • Se catt biþ gesewen - the cat is seen
  • Se catt biþ fram þǣm cilde gesewen - the cat is seen by the child (a person, or animal)
  • Hē wæs þurh cealdnesse gecweald - he was killed by coldness. (a concept, or inanimate thing)
• NEVER use be as the passive preposition. That's modern English, not Old English. OE used either fram or þurh.
• The passive mood is found in Old English texts, using wesan or weorþan: 'nu is seo boc swiþe nearolice gesett' or 'hie wurdon þa gebrohte to þæm biscope'. Sweet suggests that writers use wesan for a state and weorðan for an action.