Presents

Old English
Part 22

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Adverbs
 Old English adverbs are relatively easy to for
Modern English speakers. It could be argued that they
are easier than Modern English adverbs.
Adverbs describe verbs, and in Old English, they
are often taken directly from Adjectives. The most
common way to make an adjective into an adverb is to
add -e to the end of it. So an adjective like ān, “one,
singular, single” could become āne “only.”
Some adverbs are formed from the adjective by
adding -līċe. Some already have an adjective form -līċ
so the it is just adding that -e form. This is where the
modern adverb ending -ly derives from.
Some adjectives already end with -e, and thus do
not need any endings to be used as an adverb.
Adjectives often get a suffix of -e when in certain cases,
like the plural nominative and accusative masculine
(and sometimes feminine), or in the feminine
accusative. Check back in Lesson 11 for more details.
The adjective in those cases will resemble the adverb,
so you will have to translate it by context, or multiple
interpretations may be viable.
Adverb placement may also affect word order. If it
is placed at the beginning of a sentence, the subject
may go after the verb, as is often seen in a question.
Although word order isn’t as strict as other languages,
it tends to follow the Germanic verb-second pattern.
And example might be:
Swīþe feohteþ se cyning.
Strongly fights the king. or
The king fights strongly.
This may be done to emphasis the manner in
which something is done or for poetic purposes.
Comparative and Superlative
Form comparative and superlative expressions are
relevant to both adjectives and adverbs. Comparatives
are formed differently depending on if the word is an
adjective or adverb.
Comparative adjectives take the suffix -ra, which is
equivalent to the modern English -er ending in words
like faster. Unlike a normal adjective, the comparative
forms ONLY take weak endings (see Lesson 11 for the
weak paradigm), regardless of the environment.
As a result, some there could be some confusion
due to overlapping forms (notably the -re in some
comparative neuter and feminine cases, and the -re
found in the regular feminine dative and genitive
environments). This means that context will be crucial
to understanding exactly what the authors may have
intended. Adverbs form the comparative by adding -
or.
Superlatives take the suffix -ost and behave rather
normally for an adjective. This means that they could
be weak or strong, depending on context, and as a
result are easier to identify. Adverbs also form their
superlative with -ost.
In Modern English, we form the comparative and
superlative adjectives with -er and -est, or more often
than not, we form them by adding more and most
before the adjective or adverb. In Old English, the -ra/-
or and -ost are the only ways to indicate the
comparative and superlative.
Using them is similar to Modern English in that
sometimes þonne than can be used to form it.
Another way is to use a dative object. And example
might be:
Þē is hē swīþra.
(Compared to) you, he is stronger.
If it occurs alone, it may be a general intensifier,
and may be translated with “very” before it.

Some adjectives and adverbs have irregular

comparative and superlative forms, similar to Modern
English. These include forms that are umlauted such as
eald old, which becomes ieldra older, elder and ieldest
oldest, eldest. There are also cases such as gōd good,
betera better and betst best. These irregular forms
tend not to have a clear pattern and must be
memorized.
This concludes Part 22. New parts are made available
on patreon.com/stevevagabond weekly, so check back
often.

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