Middle English Grammar

THE NOUN
- Two methods of indicating the plural: the -s or -es from the strong masculine declension and the -en from the weak.
In the fourteenth century -s became the standard plural ending all over England.

THE ADJECTIVE
- As a result of the sound-changes, partly through the extensive working of analogy
form nominative singular ---> extended to all the cases of the singular.
form nominative plural ---> extended to all the cases of the plural.
So the change was -an>-en>-e.

THE PRONOUN
- Decay inflections ---> to rely juxtaposition, word order and prepositions.
- Loss in the demonstratives
   - the and that surviving Middle English.
   - tho (those) survived to Elizabethan times.
- Personal pronoun
   - dative + accusative ---> dative (him, her, them)
   - neuter ---> accusative it, general objective case.
   - loss of the dual number.
   - by the end Middle English ---> they, their, them normal English plural.

THE VERB
- Serious losses suffered by the strong conjugation (a third).
- Thirty more obsolete in the course Middle English.
- Thirty more used in 16th and 17 century died, after passed weak conjugation.
- Today, more than half Old English strong verbs have disappeared.
- Survival of strong participles.