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Old English morphology

The morphology of the Old English language is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more highly inflected. It more closely resembles modern German, which has over the centuries been more conservative than English.

Verbs

Verbs in Old English are divided into strong or 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

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:

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.

Stem Changes in Strong Verbs
Class	Infinitive	First Preterite	Second Preterite	Past Participle
I	ī	ā	i	i
II	ēo or ū	ēa	u	o
III	see table below
IV	e	æ		o
V	e	æ		e
VI	a	ō	ō	a
VII	—	ē or ēo	ē or ēo	—

The first preterite stem is used in the preterite tense, for the first and third persons 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 persons 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 , 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.

The third sound change turned to <i>, <æ> to , and to <u> before nasals.

Altogether, this split the third class into five sub-classes:

e + two consonants (apart from clusters beginning with l).

eo + r or h + another consonant.

e + l + another consonant.

g, c, or sc + ie + two consonants.

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	u	o
c	e	ea	u	o
d	ie	ea	u	o
e	i	a	u	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.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'steal'
Infinitives		stelan
Infinitives		tō stelanne
Present Indicative
	ic	stele
	þū	stilst
	hē/hit/hēo	stilð
	wē/gē/hīe	stelaþ
Past Indicative	ic	stæl
	þū	stæle
	hē/hit/hēo	stæl
	wē/gē/hīe	stælon
Present Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	stele
Present Subjunctive	wē/gē/hīe	stelen
Past Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo
Past Subjunctive	wē/gē/hīe
Imperative	Singular	stel
Imperative	Plural	stelaþ
Present Participle		stelende
Past Participle		stolen

Weak verbs

Weak verbs are formed by adding alveolar (t or d) endings to the stem for the past and past-participle tenses. Some examples are love, loved or 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 invent and standardize new classes or learn 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 1200 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 survivals 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 this appears as or , where <i> and are pronounced [j]. Geminated appears as , and that of appears as . 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 , which is a separate syllable pronounced [i]. All class-two verbs have an epenthetic vowel, which appears as or .

In the following table, three verbs are conjugated. Swebban 'to put to sleep' is a class one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel. 'to heal' is a class-one verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. Sīðian 'to journey' is a class-two verb.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'put to sleep'	'heal'	'journey'
Infinitives		swebban		sīðian
Infinitives		tō swebbanne	tō	tō sīðianne
Present Indicative
	ic	swebbe		sīðie
	þū	swefest		sīðast
	hē/hit/hēo	swefeþ		sīðað
	wē/gē/hīe	swebbaþ		sīðiað
Past Indicative	ic	swefede		sīðode
	þū	swefedest		sīðodest
	hē/hit/hēo	swefede		sīðode
	wē/gē/hīe	swefedon		sīðodon
Present Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	swebbe		sīðie
Present Subjunctive	wē/gē/hīe	swebben		sīðien
Past Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	swefede		sīðode
Past Subjunctive	wē/gē/hīe	swefeden		sīðoden
Imperative	Singular	swefe		sīða
Imperative	Plural	swebbaþ		sīðiað
Present Participle		swefende		sīðiende
Past Participle		swefed		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.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'have'	'live'	'say'	'think'
Infinitive		habban	libban, lifgan	secgan	hycgan
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
	wē/gē/hīe	habbaþ	libbað	secgaþ	hycgað
Past Indicative	(all persons)	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
Present Subjunctive	(all persons)	hæbbe	libbe, lifge	secge	hycge
Past Subjunctive	(all persons)	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
Imperative	Singular	hafa	leofa	sæge, saga	hyge, hoga
Imperative	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, witan, "to know" comes from a verb which originally meant "to have seen" (cf. OE wise "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 appear in the Old English corpus, and some are not attested in all forms.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'know, know how to, can'	'be able to, may'	'be obliged to, shall'	'know, wit'	'own, owe'	'avail, dow'	'dare'	'remember'	'need'	'be able to, be obliged to, mote
Infinitives		cunnan	magan	sculan	witan	āgan	dugan	durran	munan		mōtan
Present Indicative
	ic	cann	mæg	sceal	wāt	āh	deah	dearr	man	þearf	mōt
	þū	canst	meaht	scealt	wāst	āhst		dearst	manst	þearft	mōst
	hē/hit/hēo	cann	mæg	sceal	wāt	āh	deah	dearr	man	þearf	mōt
	wē/gē/hīe	cunnon	magon	sculon	witon	āgon	dugon	durron	munon	þurfon	mōton
Past Indicative
	ic	cūðe	meahte	sceolde	wisse, wiste	āhte	dohte	dorst	munde	þorfte	mōste
	þū	cūðest	meahtest	sceoldest	wissest, wistest	āhte	dohte	dorst	munde	þorfte	mōste
	hē/hit/hēo	cūðe	meahte	sceolde	wisse, wiste	āhte	dohte	dorst	munde	þorfte	mōste
	wē/gē/hīe	cūðon	meahton	sceoldon	wisson, wiston
Present Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	cunne	mæge	scule	wite	āge	dyge, duge	durre	myne, mune	þyrfe, þurfe	mōte
	wē/gē/hīe	cunnen	mægen	sculen	witaþ
Past Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	cūðe	meahte	sceolde	wisse, wiste
	wē/gē/hīe	cūðen	meahten	sceolden

Anomalous verbs

Additionally there is a further group of four verbs which are anomalous, the verbs "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: "will", "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', gān 'to go', and willan 'will' are conjugated alike:

Conjugation	Pronoun	'do'	'go'	'will'
Infinitive	–	dōn	gān	willan
Present Indicative
	ic	dō	gā	wille
	þū	dēst		wilt
	hē/hit/hēo	dēð		wile
	wē/gē/hīe	dōð	gāð	willað
Past Indicative
	ic/hē/hit/hēo	dyde	ēode	wolde
	þū	dydest	ēodest	woldest
	wē/gē/hīe	dydon	ēodon	woldon
Present Subjunctive	(all persons)	dō	gā	wille
Past Subjunctive	(all persons)	dyde	ēode	wolde
Present Participle		dōnde	–	willende
Past Participle		gedōn	gegān	–

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

Conjugation	Pronoun	sindon	bēon	wesan
Infinitive	–	sindon	bēon	wesan
Present Indicative
	ic	eom	bēo	wese
	þū	eart	bist	wesst
	hē/hit/hēo	is	bið	wes(t)
	wē/gē/hīe	sind(on)	bēoð	wesað
Past Indicative
	ic	–	–	wæs
	þū	–	–
	hē/hit/hēo	–	–	wæs
	wē/gē/hīe	–	–
Present Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	sīe	bēo	wese
	wē/gē/hīe	sīen	bēon	wesen
Past Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	–	–
	wē/gē/hīe	–	–
Imperative
	(singular)	–	bēo	wes
	(plural)	–	bēoð	wesað
Present Participle		–	bēonde	wesende
Past Participle		–	gebēon	–

The present forms of wesan are almost never used. The bēon forms are usually used in reference to future actions. The modern verb 'to be' takes its present indicative forms from sindon, its past indicative forms from wesan, its present subjunctive forms from bēon, its past subjunctive forms from wesan, and its imperative and participle forms from bēon.

Nouns

Old English nouns were declined – that is, the ending of the noun changed to reflect its function in the sentence. There were five major cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, 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 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, 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.

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.

First Person
Case	Singular	Plural	Dual
Nominative	ic, īc	wē	wit
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	þēc, þē	ēowic, ēow	incit, inc
Genitive	þīn	ēower	incer
Dative	þē	ēow	inc

Third Person
Case	Singular			Plural
Case	Masc.	Neut.	Fem.	Plural
Nominative	hē	hit	hēo	hiē m., hēo f.
Accusative	hine	hit	hīe	hiē m., hīo f.
Genitive	his	his	hire	hiera m., heora f.
Dative	him	him	hire	him

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 postpositions. Also, so that the object of a preposition was marked in the dative case, a preposition may conceivably be located anywhere in the sentence, even appended to the verb. e.g. "Scyld Scefing sceathena threatum meodo setla of teoh" means "Scyld took mead settles of (from) enemy threats." The infinitive is not declined.