Old English/Adjectives

Introduction: Introduction - Grammar - Orthography
Parts of speech: Nouns - Verbs - Pronouns - Adjectives - Adverbs - Participle - Gerund - Conjunctions - Prepositions

Adjectives describe nouns.

Adjective declensions

Adjectives in Old English agree with the noun they describe in case, gender, and number. There are several variations on the general declension, but overall, adjectives decline thus:

Singular
Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	-	-	-(u)
Genitive	-es	-es	-re
Dative	-um	-um	-re
Instrumental	-e	-e	-re
Accusative	-ne	-	-e

Notice that the genitive, dative, and instrumental feminine are all -re, and the masculine/neuter genitive is the same, the dative is the same, and the instrumental is the same. This agrees with how masculine/neuter nouns themselves decline. Also, the neuter adjective adds no ending in the nominative/accusative case, just like neuter nouns themselves. Basically, you can see that the adjective ending will roughly correspond to the article ending (þæs and -es, þǣm and -um, þǣre and -re', etc.).

In the plural, we find:

Plural
Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	-e	-(u)	-a
Genitive	-ra	-ra	-ra
Dative	-um	-um	-um
Instrumental	-um	-um	-um
Accusative	-e	-(u)	-a

Like nouns, the plural adjectives have the same form in nominative/accusative cases, and the genitives and datives are the same. The only real changing point for adjectives is whether or not to have -u in the singular feminine, and in the plural neuter. It is not present when:

• The adjective is one-syllable, and ends in 2 consonants (blind) or has a long vowel and one consonant (hāl)
• The adjective is two-syllable, and the first syllable has a short vowel and one consonant (manig), or of the pattern VCVC (the last four letters are vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant)
• The adjective ends in certain suffixes (-cund, -fæst, -feald, -lēas)

The -u ending is present when:

• The adjective is one-syllable, and ends in a short vowel and one consonant (VC) (trum, glæd)
• The adjective is two-syllable, and the first syllable has a long vowel and one consonant (āgen, hālig), or a short vowel and two consonants (crīsten, bitter)
• The adjective ends in certain suffixes (-lic, -sum)

Adjectives ending in -e, like wilde will always take the -u. Adjectives already ending in -u are a little different:

-U Ending
Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	-u	-u	-u
Genitive	-wes	-ra	-ore
Dative	-wum	-wum	-ore
Instrumental	-we	-we	-ore
Accusative	-one	-u	-we

So too in the plural, we find -ora in the genitive, -wum in the dative, and -we/-wa for masculine/feminine.

Adjectives and Cases

Sometimes adjectives in Old English can govern cases, like prepositions. German does the same thing with adjectives such as gleich, which can operate both as a descriptive adjective, and a predicate adjective with a noun "object". In Old English, adjectives often took the dative case, but cold also take other cases as well.

Adjectives governing the dative

1. Gelīc - like
2. Midsprecende - speaking on behalf of
   1. þu þe wǣre midsprecende þǣm Hǣlende thou who wert speaking on behalf of the Lord