The adjective lost all its endings – no longer expressed distinctions of gender,number and case. 16 th centuries – form of comparative & superlative used – e.g lenger and strenger Method used in comparative & superlative - -er and –est or with adverbs- more and most Shakespeare used – more larger, most boldest Two adjective or more syllables used more and most

16 th century was the century of the establishment of personal pronoun. 3 changes involved : 1.The disuse of thou,thy and thee 2.The substitution of you for ye as a nominative case 3.The introduction of its as the possessive of it

Singular form of thou,thy,thee – used to address children or person of inferior rank Plural form of ye,your,you – used as a mark of respect to address a superior But later ye, your and you became the usual pronoun of direct address irrespective of rank or intimacy. Men use th- forms & women use y- forms to reflect differences in power and status between genders By Shakespeare’s time, the y- form replaced the th- forms for both men and women

o Ye – nominative o You – objective o In 14 th century, you began to be used as nominative. o Later ye appears for the objective cases. o Ye finally dissapeared. o In 17 th century, you becomes the regular form for both cases. Both are often pronounced alike as [ j ə ]

Neuter pronoun in OE was declined hit,his,him and hit. The merge of accusative under hit in the ME become hit,his,hit. In unstressed position, hit weakened to it In modern period, it is used for subject and object His remained the proper form of possessive Nouns like stone’s and horse’s suggest the use of it’s for the possessive of it

Old English made use of definite article - the and that In 16 th century who was used as a relative Who as an indefinite pronoun Who as an interrogative in indirect questions The use of who as the relative pronoun is the contribution from the sixtieth century to our present day English language The use of who as a relative