Tense and mood in OE While

modern English distinguishes 3

tenses: present, past and
future, OE had only 2 tenses:
past and present.
Past tense expressed an action
in the past without
discriminating beteen priority
or non-priority of an action or
its connection with the present.
In OE was equivalent to past
simple, past perfect, past
progressive and present perfect
in ME.
Periphrastic tenses developed
later, at the end of the OE and
they were formed with 2
diffrenrt auxiliaries: BE or HAVE
as in contemp german.
A late OE construction
corresponding in structure to
the pr perf, was sometimes
employed for actions with no
relation to the present.This
tense looked like pr perf, but
the meaning was that of past
simple.
Another late OE construction
consisting of hde+ past part
of the lexical vb, was employed
for past action performed
before another past action. This
may be regarded as the
beginning of the past perfect
tense.
The past part did not have
special endings in middle
English, but earlier in the OE
period, the past participle
accompanying a noun was
considered to be an adj. In OE
all adj, functioning as attributes
took special endings to indicate
agreement in gender, number
and case with the noun.
Past part accompanying nouns
also had endings. Towards the
end of the OE period, the
endings attached to the past
part disappeared and the past
part was no longer interpreted
as an adj, but as a vb.
The pr tense in OE expressed
an action that took place in the
present or in the future.
(willan)
The future meaning: the vbs
sculan and willan were used as
lexical vbs in OE to express the
idea of obligation(sculan) and
intention (willan).
The OE Subjunctive mood which
was widely used especially in
subordinate clauses must have
presented actions or events as

unreal, probable or imaginary.

In main clauses, the subjunctive
expressed a wish or a
command. In subordinate
clauses it was used in indirect
speech conveing the speakers
uncertainty.
the subj was used after vbs of
desire and command in main
clause and in clauses of
purspose introduced by so
that-, clauses of comparison
introduced by as if-, clauses of
consession introduced bythough- and clauses of
condition.

The infinitive. As in CE, in OE

were two non finite verbal
forms: infinitive and participle.
the infinitive consisted of the
preposition toand a noun of
verbal origin ending in anne or
enne.
The participle was of 2 types:
present and past. Pr Part was
active in meaning, while past
part was mainly used for the
passive voice.
Participles used as adj could be
declined as weak and strong
having case, number and
gender distinctions. This part
were dependent on the noun
they modified.