Uton Sprecan Englisċ!

Noun Groups

In Old English, nouns belong to groups (also called declensions, if we're being fancy.) Nouns in each group use the same case endings. There is more than one system for naming and organizing these groups. On this site we use a system that uses the root-letter from Proto-Germanic to name each group. Note that the nouns in Old English usually don't contain that letter; it's just an arbitrary system for naming the declensions. You can call them Groups 1, 2, 3, etc., if that's easier for you.

"Heavy" versus "Light" stems

Some paradigms reference "heavy" and "light". "Heavy" syllables contain a long vowel (līf) or long diphthong (lēoþ), or end in more than one consonant (feorh). All other syllables are "light." For cases that normally end in short -i or -u, nouns that end in a heavy syllable or in two light syllables in a row will lose that ending (see types 1b, 3, 4a, and 4b for examples.)

Some general rules

• Dative plural always ends in -um, and -um is always the dative plural ending.
• Genitive plural always ends in -a, but -a is not always genitive plural.
• -as is always nominative/accusative plural.
• -es is always genitive singular.
• For about 90% of nouns, nominative and accusative singular are the same, and nominative and accusative plural are the same.
• -e will be dative singular about 90% of the time.

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1. a-stems and almost a-stems

They can either be masculine or neuter. The nominative and accusative are always The same for a-stems. You can think of the a-stems as the default group. It is the most common by far (about 60% of all nouns) and other groups will often resemble it.

1a. Masculine

	Singular	Plural
Nominative Accusative	cyning	cyningas
Genitive	cyninges	cyninga
Dative	cyninge	cyningum

1b. Neuter

	Heavy		Light
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative Accusative	līf	līf	sċip	sċipu
Genitive	līfes	līfa	sċipes	sċipa
Dative	līfe	līfum	sċipe	sċipum

1c. nd-stems

Nouns ending in -end are derived from present participles, and because of this have some endings that resemble the strong adjective endings. In the nominative/accusative plural, they can sometimes end in nothing, -e, or -as, and in the genitive plural end in -ra.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative/Accusative	ymbstandend	ymbstandend, ymbstandende, ymbstandendas
Genitive	ymbstandendes	ymbstandendra
Dative	ymbstandende	ymbstandendum

1d. z-stems

z-stems decline like light neuter a-stem nouns, but they add an R to their stems in the plural. There are exactly four of them: ċild, ǣġ, lamb, and ċealf.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative Accusative	lamb	lambru
Genitive	lambes	lambra
Dative	lambe	lambrum

2. root / athematic / umlaut nouns

These nouns undergo a change in their vowel, technically called i-umlaut. They are the source of Modern English nouns like man-men, goose-geese, mouse-mice.

	Heavy		Light
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative Accusative	gōs	gēs	hnutu	hnyte
Genitive	gōse	gōsa	hnute	hnuta
Dative	gēs	gōsum	hnyte	hnutum

3. r-stems

There are five r-stem nouns: fæder, mōdor, brōþor, sweostor, and dohtor. They are partly indeclinable, partly a-stems, and athematic.

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative Accusative	fæder	fæderas	mōdor	mōdru, -a	brōþor	brōþor, -ru, -ra	sweostor	sweostor, -ru, -ra	dohtor	dohtor, -ru, -ra
Genitive	fæder	fædera	mōdor	mōdra	brōþor	brōþra	sweostor	sweostra	dohtor	dohtra
Dative	fæder	fæderum	mēder	mōdrum	brēþer	brōþrum	sweostor	sweostrum	dehter	dohtrum

o-, u-, and i-stems

4a. o-stems

The majority of feminine nouns are o-stems. Like a-stem neuter nouns, they come in two flavors, heavy and light. Light nouns will end in -u in the nominative singular, heavy nouns end in nothing.

	Heavy		Light
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative Accusative	rād	rāda	ġiefu	ġiefa
Genitive	rāde	rāda	ġiefe	ġiefa
Dative	rāde	rādum	ġiefe	ġiefum

4b. u-stems

u-stems look like o-stems, except they end in -a in the genitive and dative singular.

	Heavy		Light
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative Accusative	hand	handa	sunu	suna
Genitive	handa	handa	suna	suna
Dative	handa	handum	suna	sunum

4c. i-stems

i-stems had largely disappeared in Old English. The masculine and neuter nouns became a-stems, and the feminine nouns became o-stems. However, some o-stem nouns will sometimes use the i-stem accusative endings.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tīd	tīda
Accusative	tīd or tīde (i-stem ending)	tīda or tīde (i-stem ending)
Genitive	tīde	tīda
Dative	tīde	tīdum

5. n-stems / weak nouns

n-stems have an N in most of their forms. They are often called weak nouns because they resemble weak adjectives.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mōna	mōnan
Accusative	mōnan	mōnan
Genitive	mōnan	mōnena
Dative	mōnan	mōnum