Indicative Subjunktive

1.bēo

Sing. 2. bist Sing. bēo

3. biþ

Plur. bēoþ Plur. bēon

Wesan (5th str.)

Preterite Imperative

Indicative Subjunctive Indicative Subjunctive

1. wæs Sing. bēo wes

Sing. 2. wǽre Sing.wǽre Plur. bēoÞ wesaÞ

3. wǽs

Plur. wǽron Plur. wǽren Participle I

bēonde wesende

No Participle II

The Old English Syntax

The syntactic structure of OE was determined by two major conditions: the nature of OE morphology and the relations between the spoken and the written forms of the language.

OE was largely a synthetic language; it possessed a system of grammatical forms which could indicate the connection between words. It was primarily a spoken language, therefore the written forms of the language resembled oral speech--- unless the texts were literal translations from Latin or poems with stereotyped constructions. Consequently, the syntax of the sentence was relatively simple; coordination of clauses prevailed over subordination; complicated syntactical constructions were rare.

Grammatical peculiarities of Old English: Morphology: a. An elaborate pronominal system as a result of case b .No real articles, only demonstratives c. Nouns have endings depending on whether they are subjects or objects and they can be masculine, feminine, or neuter in gender d. Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in case, number, and gender, and are either weak or strong e. Verbs are marked depending on whether they are weak or strong Syntax: f. Omission of subject pronoun, prepositions, and articles g. Relatively free word order (even though the verb and pronoun have more fixed positions) h. Limited use of auxiliaries: He ær com «He had come before» i. Adverbs with -e or -lic endings j. Frequent use of coordination k. Negation before the verb: Ic ne dyde «I did not» ; or multiple words