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Philology 1 - Middle English Grammar
Philology 1 - Middle English Grammar
CASES
Nominative: Accusative: Genitive: Dative: Subject; Complement (He is a man). Direct object. Possessive. Indirect object (She gave a cookie to him).
PERSONAL PRONOUNS
First-person pronouns singular nom. acc. gen. dat. I (I) me (me) my (my) me (me) plural we (we) us (us) our (our) us (us) Second-person pronouns1 singular (inf.) thou/thow (you)2 thee (you) thyn (your) thee (you) plural (formal) ye (you) you/yow (you) your (your) you/yow (you)
Third-person pronouns masculine nom. acc. gen. dat. he (he) hym, him (him) his (his) hym, him (him) neuter it, hit (it) it, hit (it) his (its) it, hit (it) feminine she (she) hir, hyr (her) hir (her) hir, hyr (her) plural they (they) hem (them) hir (their) hem (them)
__________ 1 The sg. forms were used to indicate formality and distance, while the pl. forms expressed a degree of formality, distance and politeness. Note that God was also addressed informally with thou.
2
Also occur in contracted forms, e.g.: artow (art thou/thou art), canstow (can you/you can).
NOUNS
Variant plural forms also include: <-is, -ys>: yeris, wyvys. <-z> if the word ends in <t>: tirauntz, instrumentz. <-en>, derived om the OE weak noun declension: children, oxen.
ADJECTIVES
(Descended om OE; the table below applies to singular monosyllabic adjectives.) Weak (ending with -e) If preceded by a denite article (the). If preceded by a demonstrative. If preceded by a possessive pronoun. If preceded by a proper noun in gen. case (e.g. Goddes owene son) If preceded by an adjective in vocative case (cf. Latin, used for exclamations): O deere housbonde! Strong If preceded by an indenite article (a, an). All other instances.
VERBS
VERB MOODS: Indicative, subjunctive (expressing a possibility or desire) and imperative. WEAK VERBS: Preterite is formed by adding <-d>. STRONG VERBS: Preterite is formed by change of stem vowel (as in PDE bind/bound).
Present forms
Subjunctive forms
PRESENT PRETERITE
sg.
pl.
loue(n) (love)
* Third p. sg. variation: rideth, rit; sitteth, sit, writeth, writ; byndeth, bynt. Participle forms Present participle: Weak past participle: Strong past participle:
present be be be are
present beyng
past been
be
beth
Verb phrases, auxiliaries, etc. myghte might, but usually means could. gan + innitive: gan is used as an auxiliary, indicating past tense (e.g. gan wype = wiped) shal: only translated with shall if used with I. shulan & willan: mostly full verbs in ME. kunnan = know how
COUNCTIONS
al although, even if and, and if if als, al so as but, but if if, unless eek/eke also for, for that because forthy therefore forwhy because for to in order to or or either or other, outher or sin/syn since sithe since ther(as) where wher whether; also used to introduce a question
DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
that (that) tho (those, then) this (this) thise/these (these) ilke/thilke (the same/that, this) yon (yonder)