Putting It Together
Old English Grammar 1
Chapter 10 · Putting It Together
🧩 Putting It Together
You now have the sounds, the cases, the noun classes, the articles, adjectives, pronouns and the three kinds of verb. This chapter covers how the words are arranged in a sentence, then gives a step-by-step procedure for analysing one. Sources: the Syntax and Prepositions sections of Wikipedia's Old English grammar article, and the word-order passage of the article Old English.
Word order
- Main clauses: the finite verb comes second. The article says this "resembles modern German or Dutch more than Modern English".
- Subordinate clauses: the verb comes at the end (the Old English article: "verb-second in main clauses, and verb-final in subordinate clauses").
- Freedom: the same article attributes the freer order to the amount of noun and verb inflection. Cases tell you who did what, so position matters less.
- Example from Beowulf (line 708): wrāþum on andan, "with hostile malice", word by word: hostile (dative singular) · on · malice (dative singular).
Questions and negation
| Feature | Old English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Statement | hīe libbaþ | "they live" |
| Question | libbaþ hīe? | "live they?" — subject and finite verb are inverted |
| Negative | ne before the finite verb | whichever verb it is; the Old English article says "regardless of which verb" |
| Several negatives | they stack | negative concord: each one intensifies the others |
| Helper verb | none | no do-support in questions or negatives |
Question words (hw- words) appear only as interrogatives and indefinite pronouns, according to the Old English article. They are not used for relative clauses or for "when".
Relative and subordinate clauses
- Relative clauses: no hw- relative pronoun. The invariable word þe is used, "often preceded by or replaced by the appropriate form of se" (Chapter 5 gives the forms of se, sēo, þæt).
- "When X, Y": a correlative pair, not a hw- word. The article's example:
| Þā ic hām ēode, þā slēp ic. |
| Then I home went, then slept I. |
| "When I went home, I slept." |
Look at what the example shows. The first þā clause ends in its verb (ēode), as a subordinate clause should. The second þā opens the main clause, so the verb is second and the subject follows it (slēp ic).
Prepositions
- They stand mostly before their object but often after it, especially with pronouns.
- Each governs a case. The article's list gives the case for only one entry (andlang, genitive), so for the rest consult a dictionary.
| Old English | Meaning | Modern English |
|---|---|---|
| æfter | after | after |
| ǣr | before | ere |
| æt | at | at |
| andlang | along (governs the genitive) | along |
| bæftan | behind | (nautical) abaft |
| be, bī | by, about | by |
| beforan | before | before |
| beġeondan | beyond | beyond |
| behindan | behind | behind |
| binnan | in, within | (cf. German, Dutch binnen) |
| benēoðan | beneath | beneath |
| betwēonum | between | between |
These are the first twelve entries of the article's table of about forty. Many are the ancestors of the Modern English words, which makes them easy to recognise.
A procedure for analysing a sentence
- Find the finite verb(s). Is it a main clause (verb second) or a subordinate clause (verb last)? (Chapters 8 and 9)
- Identify the verb type: weak (dental ending), strong (vowel change), preterite-present, or one of bēon/wesan, dōn, gān, willan. Work out person, number, tense and mood from the ending.
- Find the subject: a nominative noun or pronoun that agrees with the verb in number. (Chapters 3 and 7)
- Find the other nouns and note their cases from their endings and noun class. (Chapters 2 to 4)
- Check each article or adjective agrees with its noun in gender, number and case; strong or weak adjective endings depend on the context. (Chapters 5 and 6)
- Look at each preposition, and which case it takes, remembering it may follow its object.
- Read the clauses together: þā ... þā pairs, þe relatives, ne negatives.
✏️ Try It Yourself
Say the answer first, then click to check. Items marked "mine" are sentences I made up from forms shown in this course, to practise on, not quotations.
1. Where does the finite verb stand in a main clause, and where in a subordinate clause?
Show answer
Second in a main clause; last in a subordinate clause.
2. Turn hīe libbaþ "they live" into a question.
Show answer
libbaþ hīe? Swap the subject and the verb; no helper verb is needed.
3. Where does ne go?
Show answer
Before the finite verb.
4. A sentence has two negatives. Does it cancel out, as in some varieties of Modern English?
Show answer
No. The negatives stack and intensify each other (negative concord).
5. Translate Þā ic hām ēode, þā slēp ic.
Show answer
"When I went home, I slept." The first þā is "when", the second is "then".
6. In the sentence above, which verb is in a subordinate clause, and where is it?
Show answer
ēode "went" ends the first clause, as expected for a subordinate clause. It is a form of gān (Chapter 9).
7. What replaces the English "who" or "which" in a relative clause?
Show answer
þe, alone or with the right form of se.
8. What case does andlang "along" govern?
Show answer
The genitive.
9. Mine: hē ne wolde gān. Analyse it with the seven steps (hint: hē is the nominative masculine singular "he").
Show answer
Main clause; finite verb wolde, past of willan (Chapter 9), 3rd singular, with ne before it; subject hē; gān is the infinitive. "He did not want to go." The verb is not second here in the strict sense, because ne stands before it as a clitic; I mention this as my own observation, not from the sources.
10. Which of the following Modern English words come from Old English prepositions in the list above: after, beyond, between, upon?
Show answer
after (æfter), beyond (beġeondan), between (betwēonum). Upon is not in the twelve entries given here.
🎓 Course Complete
You can now read the shape of an Old English word and the shape of an Old English sentence: letters and sounds, gender and number, the cases, the noun classes, se/þes, adjectives, pronouns, weak, strong and odd verbs, and clause structure.