Old English had a highly inflected system of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs. Nouns and adjectives declined based on gender, number and case. Verbs conjugated based on person, number, tense, mood and voice. There were two tenses - present and past. Verbs were either strong, forming the past tense by ablaut, or weak, forming the past tense with dental suffixes. Compound words and derivation through prefixes and suffixes allowed the language to adapt and form new words over time.

1. Old English had inflected articles
Singular Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative Sē Sē ðæt
Genitive ðæs ðære ðæs
Dative ðæm ðære ðæm
Accusative ðone ðā ðæt
Instrumental ðy-ðon ðy-ðon

2. Plural All genders
Nominative ðā
Genitive ðāra
Dative ðæm
Accusative ðā

3. Singular 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
He
3rd person
She
3rd person
It
Nominative ic ðū hē Hēo hit
Genitive mĪn ðĪm his hiere his
Dative mē ðē Him hiere him
Accusative mē (mec) ðē(ðec) hine hĪe hit

4. Dual We two You two
Nominative wit git
Genitive uncer incer
Dative unc inc
Accusative unc inc
Plural We You 3rd person
(ellos-ellas)
Nominative wit git hĪe
Genitive uncer incer hiera
Dative unc inc him
Accusative unc inc hĪe

5. • Old English had two simple tenses by inflection:
Present and past.
It recognized the indicative , subjunctive and
imperative moods.

6. • Verbs were divided in strong and week:
• A) Strong: they have the power to indicate a change of
tense by a modification of their root vowel.
• Eg: SING - SANG - SUNG
• In Old English the vowel of the past tense differed in the
first person , third person and second person singular and
all the plurals had another vowel.
• In strong verbs we have four forms: infinitive , preterit
singular (1st and 3rd person), preterit plural and past
participle.
• B) Weak: They are affected by the addition of a dental or
and extra syllable.
• Eg: Walk – walked – walked-

7. VERB INFINITIV
E
PRETERITE
SINGULAR
1st & 3rd
person
PRETERI
TE
PLURAL
PAST
PARTICIPL
E
DRIVE drĪfan drāf drifon drifen
CHOOSE Cēosan cēas curon coren
HELP helpan healp hulpon holpen
BEAR beran bær bæron boren
SPEAK sprecan spræc spræcon sprecen
FARE, GO faran fōr fōon faren
FALL feallan fēoll fēollon feallen

8. WEAK VERBS
* A large groups of verbs in Old
English formed their past tense by
adding :
• -ede
• - ode
• -de
• TO PERFOM fremman
• Preterit 1st &3rd person  fremede
• Past participle  gefremed

9. • Language which lacked
borrowings from French and
Latin.
• Limited way to convey his
meaning without specific
vocabulary related to thoughts
and feelings.

10. English MOOD= mental state
* Old English mōd
Heart – mind- spirit – boldness – courage
* Adjective : mōdig
High-minded- spirited – bold– arrogant
• Adverb: mōdiglice
Boldy – proudly
Verb : mōdigian
a) To bear oneself proudly
b) To be indignant
c) To rage

11. New words can be perceived due to their relations with
the root.
Mood  mōd
Gemōd: disposed, minded
Mōdfull: haughty.
Mōdleas: spiritless
Combinations with other words was possible and it helped
to intensify the meaning.
Mōdsefa, mōdgepoht, mōdhord: which means mind –
thought – understanding.
Also adjectives were formed with these combinations
swĪmōd (great of soul ) swĪp = strong

12. These compounds are made of two
or more words whose meaning in
combination is self-evident.
Leohtfæt lamp  leoht= light -
fæt= vessel
Medu-heall  mead hall

13. As Old English was a flexible language, new words could be
formed with prefixes and suffixes.
• The use of prefixes helped to form new verbs
• EG. Sēttan ( to set)  assetan ( to place)
 forsettan ( to obstruct)
besettan (to appoint)
Several words were formed with suffixes such as – ig ;
-full; -lēas; -nes and –ung.