Grammar Flashcards
Nominative
- Subject
- Direct address
- Complement
Accusative
- Direct address
- Object of some prepositions (magic sheet)
Genitive
- Possession
- Partitive
- Descriptive
Dative
- Indirect object
- Object of some prepositions (magic sheet)
- Instrument, means, manner
Partitive (genitive)
Each of the men.
Thirty of the students failed.
Descriptive (genitive)
The boy is of good nature.
What is special about the 3rd person possessive adjective?
It has no inflection.
Mit minum huse
Mit his huse.
Biggest difference weak and strong nouns
Strong has a lot of declensions, weak has very few.
When is the stem of a noun short? When is it long?
Short: short vowel/diphthong + one consonant at the end.
Long: long vowel/diphthong + two consonants.
But also: long vowel/diphthong.
When is an adjective weak?
Modified by:
1. Demonstrative pronoun
2. Possessive pronoun
3. Genitive nounphrase when it is a comparative and ordinal number.
4. Indefinte article
Comparative: larger, better.
Ordinal number: first, last, fifth (not o ðer)
When is an adjective strong?
When it is not weak.
I-mutation
When a vowel is pronounced higher and farther forward (towards /i/).
Man > men
Tooth > teeth
Sell > sold
I-mutation /a/
/æ/
I-mutation /an/ or /am/
/en/ or /em/
I-mutation /æ/
/e/
I-mutation /e/
/i/
I-mutation /ea/ or /eo/
/ie/ (i y)
I-mutation /o/
/e/
I-mutation /u/
/y/
I-mutation /ā/
/æ-/
I-mutation /ēa/ or /ēo/
/īe/ (/ī ŷ/)
I-mutation /ō/
/ē/
I-mutation /ū/
/ō/
Which tenses does OE have?
Present and past.
What is the difference between weak and strong verbs?
Weak verbs adds a dental suffix in the past tense.
Strong verbs change their root vowel in the past tense, without adding a dental suffix!
Subjunctive mood
- Wishes/desires
- Reported opinion
- Doubts
- Hypothetical situation
- Conditional
Basically, when a statement is not a fact. Also triggered by if (gif) and peah, pe, though, lest, whether.
Imperative mood
- Commands
- Requests
- Directly addressing someone
Indicative mood
- He, she, it
- Facts
- Everything that is not a subjunctive or imperative
What are the anomalous verbs? And what are their past tenses?
They don’t follow the predictable rules that apply to weak and strong verbs.
- Bēon/wesan = wesan (be)
- Dōn = dyde, dēð (do)
- Gān = eode (go)
- Willan = wolde (want)
Beon, to be. Don, to do. Gan, to go. Willan, to want. (waes, willan, dōn, būan.)
What is concord? And why is it useful?
Agreement in gender, case, number or person between different sentence elements.
It is useful because it shows what parts of a sentence are connected.
What are impersonal verbs?
Verbs without a subject/verbs that have ‘it’ as a placeholder subject (hit in OE).
Why can the ending -um in adjectives be confusing?
Because it can represent both dative singular and plurals.
Comparative adjectives and ordinal numbers (except ‘second ōðer) are…
Weak
What is the function of an adverb?
Modify or describe a verb, adjective, another adverb, or entire sentence.
Important adverbs and their meanings; ōer, ēac, siððan, pā, ac, for pām pe, oð pœt.
- ōer = before
- ēac = also
- siððan = afterwards
- pā = then
- ac = but
- for pām pe = because
- oð pœt = until
Important adverbs and their meanings PART 2; pā, be, mid, of, wið, ymb(e)
- pā = when
- be = by near
- mid = with
- of = from
- wið = opposite, against
- ymb(e) = near, by
How can adverbs be made in Old English?
- By adding -e, -lice, or -unga to the end of an existing noun or adjective.
- By adding cause endings to noun (eg. genitive or dative).
Interrogative adverbs: hū, hwider, hwanon, hwōer, hwonne, hwŷ
- hū = how
- hwider = whither
- hwōer = where
- hwonne when
- hwŷ = why
Pronunciation of /sc/
Pronounced as [ʃ], but within a word, surrounded by back vowels, it is pronounced [sk].
Accentuation (stress)
All words are accented on the first syllable, except words beginning with ge-. These are stressed on the second syllable. Also, verbs with prefixes are accented on the next syllable after the prefix.
