Old English/Lesson Three

Lesson Three Grammar Old English's nouns may be 'masculine', 'feminine', or 'neuter'. (1)    Non-humans may be m. or f., and humans may be n. (1b)  Words with 'natural' gender (like mann - 'man' and dohtor - 'daughter') typically have the expected gender (the first being m.and the second being f.) Some do not, such as wif  'woman', which is n. (2)    All nouns in -a, -dom, -had, and -scipe are masculine. (3)    All nouns in -nes, -þu, -ræden, and -ung are feminine. And also all adjective-derived nouns in -o and -u. (4)    A compound noun will have the gender of its last part. These indirect object ('dative') pronoun forms are identical to the direct ones. SingularPluralFirst personmeusSecond personþeeow Vocabulary And now behold five verbs. VerbMeaningherġianto ravageleornianto learnlosianto be lostmacianto makesceawianto look at (that is, the object is taken as direct). Example.             Iċ sceawiġe hit. 'I look at it.' Exercises 1.      I was lost and you (sing.) called to me (to me) and I rejoiced. 2.      You (sing.) are lost. I will call for you (clipiġe for þe - there is no     future tense in Old English, for the most part). 3.      She looks at it and tries to learn it for him. a.      He fandode macian. b.      Hie ne (not - no 'do' or other change is needed) ([will]) herġiaþ us - we losiaþ. c.      Iċ ([will]) endie and herġie eow.