Word Order:

The dwarf (Subject) gave the dog (Indirect Object) the stone (Direct Object) [Ex. Mod.E]

The dwarf gave the stone (Indirect Object) the dog (Direct Object) [Ex. Old.E]

It is the order of the word that tells us the grammatical function.

Se dweorh ġeaf þām hunde þone stān

The dwarf gave the dog the stone

In old english the case indicate the grammatical function, and even if you change the
order of the sentence it still means the same thing. If you wanted change the meaning of
the individual sentences, you will have to change the cases of the individual noun phrases.

Se dweorh ġeaf þām stāne þone hund

The dwarf gave the stone the dog

The Cases Of Old English:

- Nominative
- Accusative
- Genitive
- Dative
- Instrumental

Time for grammatical gender (Ex. pg 4)

- Masculine
- Feminine
- Neuter
Nominative Case (Direct Address) :

Se Dweoh slæpte (The dwarf slept) — Both Se and Dweorh are in the Nominative case. The
Nominative is used for direct address like , Ēalā, dweorh! ( Alas, dwarf!). The nominative case is also
used to mark the subject predicative/complement: Hē (Subject) is se dweorh (Subject Complement).

Accusative Case (Direct Object):

Se dweorh ludode þone hund

(The dwarf loved The Dog)

The object of some prepositions (Check the german list of prepositions)

þurh þone tūn
(Through the town)

Genitive Case (Possessive And Partitive):

Possessive:
þæs dweorhes hund
(The dwarf’s dog)
Partitive:
- Seofon þāra dweorha (seven of dwarfs)
- Ælċ þāra dweorha (each of the dwarfs)
 - Fela þāra dweorha (many of the dwarfs)

Dative Case (Indirect Object)

Indirect Object:
Se dweorh ġeaf þone stān þām hunde
(The dwarf gave the dog the stone)

Substituting a Preposition (You’ll often have to add a preposition):

Se hund is þām dweorhe lēof

(the dog is dear to the dwarf)

Se dweorh slōh þone hund þām stāne

(the dwarf attacked the dog with the stone) (With not to)

Object of preposition:
tō þām tūne (to the town)

Instrumental Case (Instrument):

Se dweorh slōh þone hund þȳ stāne

(The dwarf attacked the dog with the stone)
Grammatical Gender:
It’s important to note that of some nouns will not always correspond with the real
physical or natural gender of the objects that these nouns describe, There’s no physical
reason for instance why the all these nouns for stone (se stān) is masculine. But the word
for bean (sēo bēan) is feminine.

Indicators of gender:
Iċ seah þone stān. Hē is hefiġ. - þone in this sentence is masculine.
(I saw the stone. He is heavy) - We should accurately translate this as It is heavy.