What are adjectives? They are words used to describe either nouns or pronouns. Like nouns and pronouns, they are declined according to number, gender, and case; and their number, gender, and case must always agree with the noun or pronoun that they are modifying. In addition, adjectives are also declined in either of two ways: strong or weak. This is governed by certain factors, for which see the section on the question "Strong or Weak?" below.

Strong Declension

Adjectives in Old English agree with the noun they describe in case, gender, and number. There are several variations on the general declension, but overall, adjectives decline thus:

Notice that the genitive, dative, and instrumental feminine are all -re, the masculine and neuter genetive are both "-es", and masculine and neuter dative are both "-um", and masculine and neuter instrumental are both "-e". Also, the neuter adjective adds no ending in the nominative/accusative case, just like neuter nouns themselves. Basically, you can see that the adjective ending will roughly correspond to the article ending (þæs and -es, þǣm and -um, þǣre and -re', etc.).

Here's an example:

In the plural, we find:

Notice that genitive and dative are the same in all genders for plural. Note also the instrumental is exactly the same as the dative. The "-e" ending for nominative and accusative feminine was used in later Old English.

Here's an example of the plural:

Weak Declension

Here's the singular weak declension:

Notice that the weak declension is much more uniform and simple than the strong declension. Notice also that it is exactly the same as the weak noun declension.

Here's an example of the singular:

Here's the plural weak declension:

Notice again that: It is simpler than the strong declension; it is exactly the same as the weak noun declension; and it is exactly the same for all genders.

Here's an example of a weak plural adjective:

Strong or Weak?

You can tell when to use the strong or weak declension.

An adjective would be declined weak if:

1. It was always declined weak (like most ordinal numbers, and all comparative adjectives)
2. It was preceded by the definitive article ("se/sēo/þæt" and all its declined forms), either of the demonstratives ("se/sēo/þæt" and all its declined forms and "þes/þis/þēos" and all its declined forms), or any possessive personal pronoun (mīn, þīn, sīn) except for the third person possessive pronouns ("his/hire/heora") - unless the adjective was one of the few adjectives that were always declined strong, like ōðer - "second"
3. It was used in a nickname and came after the personal name it modified (for more info see: Old English/Titles and Nicknames

In all other cases, the adjective was declined strong, including if it came after a linking verb:

• Iċ eom grēat - "I am great"
• Þā ƿihta ƿǣron fǣtta - "The creatures were fat").

Comparatives and Superlatives

The comparative and superlative forms are like Modern English "more" and "most", as is "more intelligent" and "most intelligent" or "better" and "best".

In Old English, all comparative adjectives were declined according to the weak declension - no matter what. The comparative degree was usually formed with the suffix "-ra" (the "a" being the weak masculine singular ending - so it should be replaced by other grammatical endings when it is declined). The superlative degree ("most") was usually formed by adding the suffix "-ost" to an adjective; but like the normal positive degree, it was sometimes declined weak and sometimes declined strong (see the "Strong or Weak?" section above for more information). For example:

• ƿīs ("wise") - ƿīsra ("wiser") - ƿīsost ("wisest")
• cræftiġ ("crafty, skilled") - cræftiġra ("craftier, more skilled") - cræftigost ("craftiest, most skilled")
• hefiġ ("heavy, important") - hefiġra (""heavier, more important") - hefigost ("heaviest, most important")

The superlative adjective mostly take the weak declension however for the nominative, accusative and the neuter case can take the strong. ^[1]

Some common adjectives undergo i-mutation in the comparative and superlative, and have -est instead of -ost as the superlative suffix. Examples are:

• eald ("old") - ieldra ("older") - ieldest ("oldest") (Note the same mutation in archaic Modern English "elder"/"eldest".)
• ġeong ("young") - ġingra ("younger") - ġingrest ("youngest")
• hēah ("high") - hīerra ("higher") - hīehst ("highest")
• strang ("strong") - strengra ("stronger") - strengest ("strongest")
• lang ("long") - lengra ("longer") - lengest ("longest")

Some adjectives formed their comparative and superlative degrees irregularly, and need to be memorized:

• gōd ("good") - betera ("better") - betst ("best")
• yfel ("bad, evil") - ƿirsa ("worse") - ƿirst ("worst")
• lytel ("little, small") - læssa ("smaller, less") - læst
• miċel ("much, great") - māra ("more, greater") - mǣst ("most, greatest")

Adjectives and Cases

Sometimes adjectives in Old English can govern cases, like prepositions. We do a similar thing in Modern English, but we usually use prepositions instead of cases; for example, the adjective "full" can be followed by the preposition "of", plus whatever something is "full of" - "The swimming pool was full of slime".