NiwEnglisc/Lærung 2

Subjects and Direct Objects

In Niw Englisc, nouns take different cases to indicate the functions they serve in a sentence. As the subject, they are in the nominative case. As the direct object, they are in the accusative case.

Nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter, which often have little to do with the natural gender, and more to do with the definite articles they take.

While acting as the subject:

masculine	neuter	feminine
þe Mann	þie Kwene	þat Cild

Respectively: the person, the woman, the child.

When acting as the object:

masculine	neuter	feminine
þen Mann	þie Kwene	þat Cild

Notice that only the masculine changes form in the accusative/direct object form, just like New High German.

Personal Pronouns

Pronouns take cases similarly to nouns, and are familiar to those who know Dutch or German.

-	singular I	plural we
subject	ic	wiȝ
direct object	mic	usic

-	singular thou	plural you
subject	þu	ȝiȝ
object	þic	ȝuic

-	masculine he	feminine she	neuter it	plural they
subject	he	schie	it	hje
object	hin	schie/hon	it	hje

The pronouns refer to someone much like in English or German, so that you don't have to repeat the noun numerous times in a sentence. For example:

• Þe Kyning findeþ an Hors. It is bruun. The king finds a horse. It is brown. Here, it refers to Hors, since that word is neutral.
• Þat Cild hafþ anen Hund. He is ȝung. The child has a dog. It (the dog) is young. Here, he refers to the dog, not the child, which is a neuter noun.

Present Tense verbs

Verbs in Niw English operate similarly to Middle English or Middle Saxon verbs, with simple inflection.

-	singular	-	plural
ic	make	wiȝ	makeþ
þu	makst	ȝiȝ	makeþ
he	makþ	hje	makeþ

After ic, the verb ending is always -e. After þu, the verb ending is always -st; when a verb ends in a consonant cluster or an 's' sound that would make it hard to understand the ending, add e before it.