Weak nouns end in a vowel; or, if in a consonant, in a consonant that has become final from the loss of the vowel that originally followed it. They also form a certain proportion of their oblique cases in -n, or an equivalent to -n—Nom. augô, gen. aug-in-s.
Strong nouns end in a consonant; or, if in a vowel, in one of the vowels allied to the semivowels y or w, and through them to the consonants. They also form their oblique cases by the addition of a simple inflection, without the insertion of n.
Furthermore, be it observed that nouns in general are weak and strong, in other words, that adjectives are weak or
strong, as well as substantives. Between substantives and adjectives, however, there is this difference:—
1. A substantive is either weak or strong, i.e., it has one of the two inflections, but not both. Augô=an eye, is weak under all circumstances; waurd=a word, is strong under all circumstances.
2. An adjective is both weak and strong. The Anglo-Saxon for good is sometimes god (strong), sometimes gode (weak). Which of the two forms is used depends not on the word itself, but on the state of its construction.
In this respect the following two rules are important:—
1. The definite sense is generally expressed by the weak form, as se blinde man=the blind man.
2. The indefinite sense is generally expressed by the strong form, as sum blind man=a blind man.
Hence, as far as adjectives are concerned, the words definite and indefinite coincide with the words weak and strong respectively, except that the former are terms based on the syntax, the latter terms based on the etymology of the word to which they apply.