Wikipǣdia:Old English Self-Correction Checklist

This checklist is supposed to be used to help people self-correct their own work in Old English, or proofread other people's Old English. Each item on the checklist should be examined to see if it applies to the content being proofread.

In short

1. Correct use of weak vs strong adjective declension
2. Appropriate case for nouns, pronouns, adjectives
3. Proper matching of cases with verbs and prepositions
4. Agreement in case, gender, and number between nouns, pronouns, and adjectives
5. Some words are indeclinable
6. Some quantitative words (such as "fela") take partitive genitive
7. Does the noun belong to a niche declension that doesn't follow normal declension patterns?
8. Correct verb conjugation paradigm (weak 1, weak 2, strong, etc.)
9. Correct person and tense of verb
10. Correct word order (especially in subordinate clauses)
11. Bosworth and Toller uses old-fashioned Modern English - do you actually have the right Old English word?
12. Is your speech idiomatic? (For advanced speakers.)
13. Do your neologisms follow historical Old English word-coining patterns?

Verbose

1. Are your adjectives appropriately declined weak vs strong? Weak declension is used: when the adjective is preceeded by all forms of "se", "þes", and all non-third person possessive pronouns; in apposition, in the comparative degree, in nearly all ordinals (except "ōðer" is ALWAYS declined strong) - otherwise it is declined strong.
2. Are your adjectives, nouns, and pronouns using the appropriate case?
3. Are you using the correct cases for verbs and prepositions? The cases which verbs and prepositions take is not fully predictable; for example, "hyran" (to hear) usually takes the accusative case for person being heard; but "hlystan" (to listen) usually takes the genitive case. Note that such cases are variable - sometimes, any of two cases may be used with the same meaning; however, sometimes changing case changes the relationship of the verb object to the verb, and the meaning of the sentence.
4. Do adjectives agree in number, gender, and case with their respective nouns/pronouns?
5. Are all words that are being declined actually declinable? Some words are usually treated as indeclinable, such as "fēawa" - "few".
6. Do any quantitative words which are used, ("fela", "fēawa", etc) take partitive genitive?
7. Do any nouns which are used belong to a niche declension? E.g. u-declenion (sunu), -ru ending (ċildru), i-mutated, etc.
8. Are you using the correct verb conjugation (out of class 1 weak, class 2 weak, class 3 weak, present-preterite, all 7+ strong verb classes, irregular verbs, etc)?
9. Are you using the correct person and tense of the verb?
10. Is your word order correct?
11. If you are using Bosworth and Toller, some of the Modern English translations for Old English words there are out-of-date. Are you sure you have the correct Old English word for the sense or meaning you intend?
12. Is your Old English idiomatic? Advanced concern - disregard this if you are a beginner.
13. If you are using neologisms, are your neologisms in line with Old English word-formation constraints?