1. + Nouns The Case System

2. + Gender Modern English does not retain grammatical gender, although pronouns do reflect natural gender. Grammatical gender in OE reflects stem- and suffix-patterns in the structure of words as they change cases. Masculineeorl – lord, chief Femininecwen – queen Neuterw ī f – woman

3. + Case OE cases are comparable to NE noun functions. In NE, declensions are rarely visible except in strong nouns, and word order determines function and meaning. In OE, on the other hand, is an inflected language, so word order is virtually meaningless and suffixes almost exclusively determine usage and case. Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative

4. + Nominative Compare with NE subjective case. Functions as subject or complement. Subject Bob runs. ComplementThe man running is Bob.

5. + Accusative Compare with NE objective case. Can function as direct object or object of a preposition. Direct ObjectYou’re watching Bob run. Object of PrepositionYou stand beside Bob.

6. + Genitive Compare with possessive in NE. Functions as possessive or partitive. Possessive Bob’s car is red. PartitiveBob is of Welsh descent.

7. + Dative Note similarities to NE objective case. Shows direction (to/for). Function as indirect object. Direction Larry teases Junior to Bob. Indirect Object Larry throws the brush to Bob. Larry throws Bob the hairbrush.