words can be learnt only by practice, and the student should learn each noun with its proper definite article.

Strong and Weak. Weak nouns are those which form their inflections with n, such as se mōna, plural mōnan; sēo sunne, genitive sing. þǣre sunnan. All the others, such as se dæġ, pl. dagas, þæt hūs (house), gen. sing. þæs hūses, are strong.

Cases. There are four cases, nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. The acc. is the same as the nom. in all plurals, in the sing. of all neuter nouns, and of all strong masculines. Masculine and neuter nouns never differ in the plural except in the nom. and acc., and in the singular they differ only in the acc. of weak nouns, which in neuters is the same as the nom. The dative plural of nearly all nouns ends in -um.

STRONG MASCULINES.

(1) as-plurals.

So also dǣl (part), cyning (king), ċildhād (childhood).

dæġ (day) changes its vowel in the pl. (p. 5):—dæġ, dæġe, dæġes; dagas, dagum, daga.

Nouns in -e have nom. and dat. sing. the same:—ęnde, (end), ęnde, ęndes; ęndas, ęndum, ęnda.

Nouns in -el, -ol, -um, -en, -on, -er, -or often contract:—ęnġel (angel), ęnġle, ęnġles; ęnġlas, ęnġlum, ęnġla. So also næġel (nail), þeġen (thane), ealdor (prince). Others, such as æcer (field), do not contract.

h after a consonant is dropped in inflection (p. 7), as in feorh (life), fēore, fēores. So also in Wealh (Welshman), plur. Wēalas.

There are other classes which are represented only by a few nouns each.

(2) e-plurals.

A few nouns which occur only in the plur.:—lēode (people), lēodum, lēoda. So also several names of nations:—Ęnġle (English), Dęne (Danes); Seaxe (Saxons), Mierċe (Mercians), have gen. plur. Seaxna, Mierċna.

(3) Mutation-plurals.

So also tōþ (tooth). Mann (man), męnn, mannes; męnn, mannum, manna.

(4) u-nouns.

So also wudu (wood).

(5) r-nouns (including feminines).

So also brōþor (brother); fæder (father), dohtor (daughter), have dat. sing. fæder, dehter.

(6) nd-nouns.

Formed from the present participle of verbs.

So also fēond (enemy).

Those in -end inflect thus:—būend (dweller), būend, būendes; būend, būendum, būendra. So also Hǣlend (saviour). The -ra is an adjectival inflection.

STRONG NEUTERS.

(1) u-plurals.