Editing Old English (section)

=== Morphology ===
Nouns [[declension|decline]] for five [[grammatical case|cases]]: [[nominative]], [[accusative]], [[genitive]], [[dative]], [[instrumental case|instrumental]]; three [[grammatical gender|genders]]: masculine, feminine, neuter; and two [[grammatical number|numbers]]: singular, and plural; and are strong or weak. The instrumental is vestigial and only used with the masculine and neuter singular and often replaced by the [[dative]]. Only [[pronoun]]s and strong adjectives retain separate [[instrumental case|instrumental]] forms. There is also sparse early Northumbrian evidence of a sixth case: the [[locative]]. The evidence comes from Northumbrian [[Runic]] texts (e.g. {{lang|ang-Runr|ᚩᚾ ᚱᚩᛞᛁ}} {{lang|ang|on rodi}} 'on the Cross').<ref>{{cite book |title=An Introduction to English Runes |last=Boydell |date=1999 |page=230}}</ref>

Adjectives agree with nouns in case, gender, and number, and can be either strong or weak. Pronouns and sometimes [[participle]]s agree in case, gender, and number. First-person and second-[[grammatical person|person]] pronouns occasionally distinguish [[dual (grammatical number)|dual-number]] forms. The [[definite article]] {{lang|ang|sē}} and its [[inflection]]s serve as a [[definite article]] (''the''), a [[demonstrative adjective]] (''that''), and [[demonstrative pronoun]]. Other demonstratives are {{lang|ang|þēs}} ("this"), and {{lang|ang|ġeon}} ("that over there"). These words inflect for case, gender, and number. Adjectives have both strong and weak sets of endings, weak ones being used when a definite or possessive [[determiner]] is also present.

Verbs [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugate]] for three [[grammatical person|persons]]: first, second, and third; two numbers: singular, plural; two [[tenses]]: present, and past; three [[grammatical mood|moods]]: [[grammatical mood#indicative|indicative]], [[subjunctive]], and [[imperative mood|imperative]];<ref name="EncyclopediaofBritishLiterature">{{cite web |title=''Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature'' |url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/britlit/old_english |publisher=Continuum}}</ref> and are strong (exhibiting ablaut) or weak (exhibiting a dental suffix). Verbs have two [[infinitive]] forms: bare and bound; and two [[participle]]s: present and past. The subjunctive has past and present forms. Finite verbs agree with [[subject (grammar)|subjects]] in person and number. The [[future tense]], [[passive voice]], and other [[grammatical aspect|aspects]] are formed with compounds. [[Adpositions]] are mostly before but are often after their object. If the [[object (grammar)|object]] of an adposition is marked in the dative case, an adposition may conceivably be located anywhere in the sentence.

Remnants of the Old English case system in Modern English are in the [[English personal pronouns|forms of a few pronouns]] (such as ''I/me/mine'', ''she/her'', ''[[Who (pronoun)|who/whom/whose]]'') and in the [[English possessive|possessive]] ending ''-'s'', which derives from the masculine and neuter genitive ending ''-es''. The modern [[English plural]] ending ''-(e)s'' derives from the Old English ''-as'', but the latter applied only to "strong" masculine nouns in the nominative and accusative cases; different plural endings were used in other instances. Old English nouns had [[grammatical gender]], while modern English has only natural gender. Pronoun usage could reflect either natural or grammatical gender when those conflicted, as in the case of the grammatically neuter (but naturally feminine) noun {{lang|ang|ƿīf}} ({{IPA|/wiːf/|wrap=none|lang=ang}}), which meant "woman" (from {{lang|ang|ƿīfmann}}, {{Lit|woman person|female person}}) and became Modern English ''wife''.

In Old English's verbal compound constructions are the beginnings of the [[Uses of English verb forms|compound tenses of Modern English]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=Bruce |last2=Robinson |first2=Fred C. |year=2002 |title=A Guide to Old English |place=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell |pages=109–112}}</ref> Old English verbs include [[Germanic strong verb|strong verbs]], which form the past tense by altering the root vowel, and [[Germanic weak verb|weak verbs]], which use a suffix such as {{lang|ang|-de}}.<ref name="EncyclopediaofBritishLiterature" /> As in Modern English, and peculiar to the Germanic languages, the verbs formed two great classes: weak (regular), and strong (irregular). Like today, Old English had fewer strong verbs, and many of these have over time decayed into weak forms. Then, as now, dental suffixes indicated the past tense of the weak verbs, as in ''work'' and ''worked''.<ref name="Baugh1951" />