Others, such as þynċan (appear), take a dative of the person:—wæs him ġe·þūht þæt hīe be·hȳdden þæt hēafod (they thought they (the Danes) had hidden the head).
Tenses.
There being no future inflection in Old E., the present is used instead:—ne ā·bȳhþ nǣfre Eādmund Hinguare (Edmund will never submit to H.); gā ġē on mīnne wīnġeard, and ic sęlle ēow þæt riht biþ (go ye into my vineyard, and I will give you what is right). As we see in this example, there is a tendency to use bēon in a future sense. Another example is ġif ic bēo ġe·bunden mid seofon rāpum, sōna ic bēo ġe·wield (if I am bound with seven ropes, I shall at once be overcome). The future is sometimes expressed by will and shall, as in Modern English, though generally with a sense of volition with the one, and of necessity with the other, the idea of simple futurity coming out most clearly in the preterites wolde and scolde:—
Hē ġe·lǣhte āne lēon þe hine ā·bītan wolde (he seized a lion
that was going to devour him); hīe wēndon þæt hīe scolden māre on·fōn (they expected to receive more).
The preterite has the meaning of the modern
(1) Preterite and imperfect:—se sāwere ūt ēode his sǣd tō sāwenne, and þā þā hē sēow ... (the sower went out to sow his seed, and while he was sowing ...).
(2) Perfect:—hēr is mīn cnapa, þone ic ġeċēas (here is my servant, whom I have chosen);—ūre cyning cōm nū hēr tō lande (our king has just landed here).
(3) Pluperfect:—þā þā ġe·cōmon þe ymb þā ęndlyftan tīd cōmon (when those came who had come at the eleventh hour).
Periphrastic tenses are sometimes formed, as in Modern E., by hæbbe and hæfde with the past participles, and often have the meanings of the modern perfect and pluperfect respectively, as in nū ic hæbbe ġestrīened ōþru twā pund (now I have gained two other pounds), but even the pluperfect often has the sense of a simple preterite. The participle is undeclinable in the later language, but originally it was declined, being really an adjective in apposition to the noun or pronoun governed by habban: hīe hæfdon hiera cyning ā·worpenne (they had deposed their king).