Old English Adjectives

words
Old English adjectives had the grammatical categories of gender, number

and case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and partly, instrumental).OE adjectives as well as OE nouns had two types of declension: strong and weak

describe in case, gender, and number. There are several variations

on the general declension, but overall, adjectives decline thus: Singular: Notice that the genitive, dative, and instrumental feminine are all -re, the masculine and neuter genetive are both "-es", and masculine and neuter dative are both "-um", and masculine and neuter instrumental are both "-e". 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.

genders for plural. Note also the instrumental is exactly the

same as the dative. The "-e" ending for nominative and accusative feminine was used in later Old English.

monosyllabic stem and has æ for its vowel, and the

æ is followed by a single consonant, as in the words glæd ("glad") and blæc ("black), then an extra rule comes into play: the æ changes to an a whenever the adjective acquires a suffix which begins with a vowel. For example, here is the strong declension of glæd (glad). There is no need to supply the weak declension, since in the weak declension every suffix begins with a vowel.

of this type of adjective. Here is the strong declension:

simple rules:
· Where the ordinary strong declension has no suffix,

-ƿ adjectives have the suffix -u.
· Where the ordinary strong declension has a suffix beginning with a consonant, -ƿ adjectives have an o followed by the appropriate suffix.
· Where the ordinary strong declension has a suffix beginning with a vowel, -ƿ adjectives have a ƿ followed by the appropriate suffix.
There is no need to give the weak declension, since in the weak declension every number and case has a suffix beginning with a vowel; -ƿ adjectives will therefore uniformly precede this suffix with a ƿ.

simple rule: the e at the end is displaced by

any suffix, but stays where it is if there is no suffix. Hence the strong declension looks like this:

weak declension is much more uniform and simple than the

strong declension. Notice also that it is exactly the same as the weak noun declension.

or weak declension.
An adjective would be declined weak if:
1. It

was always declined weak (like most ordinal numbers, and all comparative adjectives)
2. It was preceded by the definitive article ("se/sēo/þæt" and all its declined forms), either of the demonstratives ("se/sēo/þæt" and all its declined forms and "þes/þis/þēos" and all its declined forms), or any possessive personal pronoun (mīn, þīn, sīn) except for the third person possessive pronouns ("his/hire/heora") - unless the adjective was one of the few adjectives that were always declined strong, like ōðer - "second"
3. It was used in a nickname and came after the personal name it modified.
In all other cases, the adjective was declined strong, including if it came after a linking verb:
· Iċ eom grēat - "I am great"
· Þā ƿihta ƿǣron fǣtta - "The creatures were fat").

English "more" and "most", as is "more intelligent" and "most

intelligent" or "better" and "best".
In Old English, all comparative adjectives were declined according to the weak declension - no matter what. The comparative degree was usually formed with the suffix "-ra" (the "a" being the weak masculine singular ending - so it should be replaced by other grammatical endings when it is declined). The superlative degree ("most") was usually formed by adding the suffix "-ost" to an adjective; but like the normal positive degree, it was sometimes declined weak and sometimes declined strong (see the "Strong or Weak?" section above for more information). For example:
· ƿīs ("wise") - ƿīsra ("wiser") - ƿīsost ("wisest")
· cræftiġ ("crafty, skilled") - cræftiġra ("craftier, more skilled") - cræftigost ("craftiest, most skilled")
· hefiġ ("heavy, important") - hefiġra (""heavier, more important") - hefigost ("heaviest, most important")

however for the nominative, accusative and the neuter case can

take the strong.
Some common adjectives undergo i-mutation in the comparative and superlative, and have -est instead of -ost as the superlative suffix. Examples are:
· eald ("old") - ieldra ("older") - ieldest ("oldest") (Note the same mutation in archaic Modern English "elder"/"eldest".)
· ġeong ("young") - ġingra ("younger") - ġingrest ("youngest")
· hēah ("high") - hīerra ("higher") - hīehst ("highest")
· strang ("strong") - strengra ("stronger") - strengest ("strongest")
· lang ("long") - lengra ("longer") - lengest ("longest")
Some adjectives formed their comparative and superlative degrees irregularly, and need to be memorized:
· gōd ("good") - betera ("better") - betst ("best")
· yfel ("bad, evil") - ƿirsa ("worse") - ƿirst ("worst")
· lytel ("little, small") - læssa ("smaller, less") - læst
· miċel ("much, great") - māra ("more, greater") - mǣst ("most, greatest")