Gender and Number
Old English Grammar 1
Chapter 2 · Gender and Number
🧩 Gender and Number
Every Old English noun has a gender (masculine, feminine or neuter) and a number (singular or plural), and the rest of the sentence has to agree with them. This chapter explains how gender is decided and how the plural is made. The case endings are Chapter 3. Everything here comes from the Nouns section of Wikipedia's Old English grammar article unless it is marked as mine.
The three genders
Gender is inherited from Proto-Indo-European. For people and animals it often follows biological sex, but with exceptions, and for things you mostly have to learn it with the word:
| Kind of noun | Pattern (per the article) | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Sexed beings | Usually match their sex | fæder father (m) · mōdor mother (f) · cyning king (m) · cwēn queen (f) · munuc monk (m) · nunne nun (f) |
| Exceptions | Gender and sex do not match | wīf woman, wife (n) · mæġden girl (n) · wīfmann woman (m) |
| Animals | Mixed | hana rooster (m) · henn hen (f) · swīn pig (n) |
| People of either sex | Usually masculine | frēond friend (m) · bæcere baker (m); exceptions ċild and bearn child (both n) |
| Things | Hard to predict | seax knife (n) · gafol fork (f) · cucler spoon (m) |
Clues in the shape of the word
| Gender | Endings and categories (per the article) |
|---|---|
| Masculine | Nouns in -a (almost all); suffixes -oþ, -dōm, -end, -els, -uc, -ling, -ere, -hād, -sċipe; letters of the alphabet |
| Feminine | Suffixes -ung, -þu, -nes, -estre, -rǣden, -wist |
| Neuter | Suffixes -lāc, -et, -ærn, -ċen; metals; verbs used as nouns |
- Compounds take the gender of their last element, so wīfmann is masculine because mann is.
- Diminutive -en: mæġden is neuter because of its diminutive -en.
- The -a exception: the article says Italia, a learned Latin borrowing, is an exception to "-a means masculine".
Making a feminine
The article says Old English often has a general word for both sexes and a separate, suffixed word for females:
| Suffix | General or male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| -en | god god · ielf elf · þēow slave | gyden goddess · ielfen female elf · þiewen female slave |
| -estre (female of -ere and -end) | sangere singer · bæcere baker | sangestre female singer · bæcestre |
| -e (female of -a) | wyrhta worker | wyrhte |
| Separate words | hlāford master | hlǣfdiġe mistress |
Number: the plural
Old English has a singular and a plural. The first- and second-person pronouns also have a dual, met in Chapter 7. For nouns, the plural ending depends on the noun class. The article's model nouns are below; the case endings in the full tables (genitive, dative) are for Chapter 3, so this chapter only compares the singular and the plural of the nominative:
| Class | Noun | Nominative singular | Nominative plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine a-stem | dog | hund | hundas |
| Neuter a-stem, "light" | boat | sċip | sċipu |
| Neuter a-stem, "heavy" | house | hūs | hūs (no change) |
| Light ō-stem | gift | ġiefu | ġiefa |
| Heavy ō-stem | ride | rād | rāda |
| n-stem, masculine | moon | mōna | mōnan |
| n-stem, feminine | sun | sunne | sunnan |
| n-stem, neuter | eye | ēage | ēagan |
- a-stems are about 60% of all nouns. Masculine and neuter a-stems differ only in the nominative and accusative plural.
- Light and heavy neuters: some neuter a-stems take -u in the plural and some have no ending. The article traces the split to high vowel apocope, and notes that some nouns have two competing plurals, one with -u and one without: "dreams" is either swefn or swefnu.
- ō-stems include most feminines. The article says light ones end in -u in the nominative singular and heavy ones have no ending.
- n-stems are called "weak" nouns because most endings are -an; all the other classes are "strong".
⚠️ Watch out
📋 Quick Reference
| Topic | Remember |
|---|---|
| Genders | Masculine, feminine, neuter, from the shape of the word more than its meaning |
| Gender clues | -a masculine; -ung, -þu, -nes, -estre feminine; -lāc, -et, -ærn, -ċen neuter; compounds take the last element's gender |
| Feminines | -en, -estre and -e make female forms |
| Plural, masculine a-stem | -as (hundas) |
| Plural, neuter a-stem | -u or no ending (sċipu, hūs) |
| Plural, ō-stem | -a (ġiefa, rāda) |
| Plural, n-stem | -an (mōnan, sunnan, ēagan) |
✏️ Try It Yourself
Say the answer first, then click to check.
1. What gender is wīf "woman, wife", and why is it surprising?
Show answer
Neuter. It names a female but the noun is not feminine; the article lists it as an exception to the sex rule.
2. wīfmann is masculine. Which rule explains it?
Show answer
Compounds take the gender of their last element, and mann is masculine.
3. Which gender would you expect for a noun ending in -nes, and for one ending in -dōm?
Show answer
-nes is feminine; -dōm is masculine.
4. Give the plural of hund and say which class it belongs to.
Show answer
hundas. Masculine a-stem.
5. sċip and hūs are both neuter a-stems. How do their plurals differ?
Show answer
sċip is "light" and takes -u (sċipu); hūs is "heavy" and has no plural ending.
6. Which noun class is called "weak", and what is its typical plural ending?
Show answer
The n-stems; the typical ending is -an (mōnan).
7. Make the female form of sangere "singer" and of god "god".
Show answer
sangestre and gyden "goddess".
8. What is the nominative plural of ġiefu "gift" and of ēage "eye"?
Show answer
ġiefa (light ō-stem) and ēagan (neuter n-stem).
9. Why does the article say some nouns have two plurals? Give its example.
Show answer
Because of a sound change called high vowel apocope, some neuter nouns have both a plural with -u and one without. "Dreams" is either swefn or swefnu.
10. A word ends in -a and is the name of a man. What gender is it likely to be, and what could go wrong?
Show answer
Masculine: nouns in -a are almost all masculine. What could go wrong: the article says learned borrowings such as Italia are exceptions, so the ending is a strong clue but not a rule without exceptions.