Old English grammar in the feminine singular and neuter plural: The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -h: The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -ƿ: Old English had two main determiners: "se", which could function as both 'the' or 'that', and "þes" for 'this'. Modern English 'that' descends from the neuter nominative/accusative form, and 'the' from the masculine nominative form, with 's' replaced analogously by the 'th' of the other forms. The feminine nominative form was possibly the source of Modern English 'she'. Most pronouns are declined by number, case and gender; in the plural form
Old English grammar and its imperative and participle forms from "bēon". (Modern German had an analogous, but even more complicated, development for its verb "sein".) In late OE and ME, the form "earon"/"earun", from the Old Norse "erun", replaced bēoþ and sind (See also List of English words of Old Norse origin). Old English is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, adjectives and determiners must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. As in several other ancient Germanic languages, there are five major cases: