NOUNS.
Gender. There are three genders in O.E.—masculine, neuter, and feminine. The gender is partly natural, partly
grammatical. By the natural gender names of male beings, such as se mann (the man), are masculine; of female beings, such as sēo dohtor (the daughter), are feminine; and of young creatures, such as þæt ċild (the child), neuter. Note, however, that þæt wīf (woman) is neuter.
Grammatical gender is known only by the gender of the article and other words connected with the noun, and, to some extent, by its form. Thus all nouns ending in -a, such as se mōna (moon), are masculine, sēo sunne (sun) being feminine. Those ending in -dōm, -hād, and -sċipe are also masculine:—se wīsdōm (wisdom), se ċildhād (childhood), se frēondsċipe (friendship). Those in -nes, -o (from adjectives) -rǣden, and -ung are feminine:—sēo rihtwīsnes (righteousness), sēo bieldo (boldness) from beald, sēo mann-rǣden (allegiance), sēo scotung (shooting).
Compounds follow the gender of their last element, as in þæt burg-ġeat (city-gate), from sēo burg and þæt ġeat. Hence also se wīf-mann (woman) is masculine.
The gender of most words can be learnt only by practice, and the student should learn each noun with its proper definite article.
Strong and Weak. Weak nouns are those which form their inflections with n, such as se mōna, plural mōnan; sēo sunne, genitive sing. þǣre sunnan. All the others, such as se dæġ, pl. dagas, þæt hūs (house), gen. sing. þæs hūses, are strong.
Cases. There are four cases, nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. The acc. is the same as the nom. in all plurals, in the sing. of all neuter nouns, and of all strong masculines. Masculine and neuter nouns never differ in the plural except in the nom. and acc., and in the singular they differ only in the acc. of weak nouns, which in neuters is the same as the nom. The dative plural of nearly all nouns ends in -um.
STRONG MASCULINES.