Engl401 | Lessons | Weak Nouns

You are here: English 401 > Lessons > Lesson 4 > Masculine and Neuter Weak Nouns

The Four Main Cases: Masculine and Neuter Weak Nouns

Weak Nouns

Weak nouns are so called because they have less variation in form than the so-called "strong nouns." They are not a very numerous group of nouns compared to strong masculine and neuter nouns, but they are frequently encountered and it helps a lot to know the declension. It is also very easy to learn: there are only a few different forms, with the ending -an serving for most of the cases. The "paradigms" (grammatical examples) here are the weak masculine noun cnapa, meaning 'servant' or 'boy', and the weak neuter noun eage, meaning 'eye'. If you look at the early texts in the course, you should be able to spot a number of other weak nouns including (in "Abraham and Isaac") nama (name) and steorra (star).

Using only this page, without looking at the glossary for that text: are nama and steorra masculine or neuter? How do you know?

(Notice, by the way, that the nominative singular form is the one we use when talking about a word by itself; it's also the form that you will find as the headword in a printed dictionary or glossary.)

Weak Masculine Noun *cnapa* with Demonstratives
cnapa	Singular	Plural
Nominative	se cnapa	þá cnapan
Accusative	þone cnapan	þá cnapan
Genitive	þæs cnapan	þára cnapena
Dative	þæm cnapan	þæm cnapum

Things to notice:

The ending -an serves for accusative, genitive, and dative singular and for nominative and accusative plural.
The genitive plural ending is similar to the strong nouns, but -ena instead of simply -a. (Actually, there's a bit of confusion over this among speakers of the language themselves, so that we sometimes see a strong ending (-a) on a weak noun or vice versa.
The dative plural ending is the same as we have already seen for the strong masculine and neuter nouns. In fact, get used to associating -um with the dative case, because this shows up a lot.

The declension of weak neuter nouns (of which there are only two) is the same, except for an -e ending in nominative and accusative singular.

Weak Neuter Noun *éage*
éage	Singular	Plural
Nominative	þæt éage	þá éagan
Accusative	þæt éage	þá éagan
Genitive	þæs éagan	þára éagena
Dative	þæm éagan	þæm éagum

Return to Lesson 4

Contact: Murray McGillivray at mmcgilli@acs.ucalgary.ca or the Listserv at mailto:eg401-m@acs.ucalgary.ca