The Old English Adjective

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.

The strong adjective declension

blæc (black)

Notes:

· There is a slight difference in declension between short-stemmed (such as glæd, smæl) and long-stemmed (such as gōd, eald) adjectives: in the feminine nominative singular and the neuter nominative or accusative plural the short-stemmed adjectives have the ending –u, while long-stemmes adjectives have a zero ending.

· Adjectives with æ in the root syllable change it to a before all endings beginning with a vowel.

The weak adjective declension

Degrees of comparison

Several adjectives have suppletive forms of comparative and superlative

The comparatives are declined as strong adjectives; the superlatives rarely take the forms of the strong declension and mostly follow the weak declension.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 5025