Irregular Verbs

Among two past forms of the verb gon: yede and wente the latter sirvived in NE.

Bēn

Present

Indicative Imprerative Subjunclive

Sg. 1. am }

2. art bē } bē

3. is }

Pl. bēn bēth bēn

Past

Sg. was }

wēre } wēre

was }

Pl. wēren wēren

Participle: Present – bēinge,

Past – bēn

Willen

Present Past

Indicative Subjenctive Indicative Subjunctive

Sg. 1. Wil } wolde }

2. wilt } wille woldest } wolde

3. wil } wolde }

Pl. willen } wolden wolden

willeth } willen

willes }

wol, wolt, wollen.

Dōn

Present Past

Indicative Subjunctive Imprerative Indicative Subjunctive

Sg. 1. dō } dide }

2. dōst } dō dō didest } dide

3. dōth } dide }

Pl. dōn } dōth diden

dōth } dōn

dōs }

Participle: Present – dōinge,

Past – dōn

Gōn

Present

ME Subjunctive Imprerative

Sg. c.a. gō

gōst gō gō

gōth

Pl. gōn gōn gōth

Past

Indicative Subjunctive

ME yede, wente yede, wente

yedest, wentest

Pl. yeden, wenten yeden, wenten

Participle: Present – gangende > gōinge

Past – gegān > gōn

Preterite – present Verbs

ME Past

cunnen couthe, coude

mowen mighte

shul(l)en sholde

mōten mōste

durren dorste, durste

thurfen thurfte

witen wiste

dowen doughte

owen oughte

munen?

unen outhe

Witen, cunnen

Present

Indicative Conjunctive Imprerative

Sg. 1. wōt, can }

2. wōtst, wōst, canst } wite, cunne wite, ---

3. wōt, can }

Pl. witen, cunnen witen, cunnen witeth?

Past

Indicative Conjunctive

Sg. 1. wiste, couthe, coude }

2. wistest, couthest, coudest, (coude) } wiste, couthe, coude

3. wiste, couthe, coude }

Pl. wisten,couthen, couden wisten, couthen, couden

Participle: Present: witende

Past: witen, couth.

1. NOMINATIVE PARTS OF SPEECH in ME

1. ME Nouns

2. ME Pronouns

3. The development of articles in ME

4. ME Adjectives

5. Me Numerals

ME Nouns

The nouns in OE had the grammatical categories of gender, number and case, and were grouped into an elaborate system of declensions based on an earlier divi­sion into stems, and correlated with gender.

In ME the variety of types of declension no longer existed. With a few ex­ceptions, the nouns had all gone over to the former masculine “ o -“ declension. In the South, however, the “ n- “ stem declension was retained for a long time, and its endings were even added to some nouns of other stems. Thus, the noun child (for­mer “ es- “ stem) acquired the plural form children instead of childre (<OE cildru).

Of the OE case-endings only “ -es ” of the genitive singular and “ -as ” of the nominative and accusative plural (“ o ”- stems, masculine) were preserved as pro­ductive endings, ME “ -es ”.

Instead of the 4 cases of OE we find only two cases in ME. The endings of the Nominative, Dative and Accusative cases, singular, mostly fell together, and these case forms were fused to represent but one case which may be called the Common case.

The Common Case has acquired a very general meaning, which was made more specific by the context: prepositions, the meaning of the verb – predicate, the word-order. Only with the help of these specifications could it express the various meanings formerly belonging to the different case-forms of the noun.

The Genitive case remained but it was used not so often as in OE. It gradually narrowed its meaning to that of possession, so that it could already be called the Possessive case. But unlike MdE, the Possessive case was not restricted to nouns denoting living beings.

In the plural the ending – “ es ” (from OE –as) spread to all cases of most nouns, so that, in fact, there were no case distinctions in the plural.

Here is the sample of the ME dominant type of declension:

Sg Pl

Common Case ston stones

Possessive Case stones stones

A few nouns retained the plural ending “ -en ” of the weak declension: oxen, eyen (ME eyes), brethren, children.

Some nouns preserved the inflected plural forms of the ō -stems neuter gender.

shēp, dēr, hors, thing

(sheep, deer, horse, thing)

Several nouns of the root-stems had different vowels in the singular and plural forms: man – men, fōt –fēt, etc.

PRONOUNS

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