Middle English typically adds -s or -es to plural nouns, as well as to nouns in the genitive singular: \u2018And sondry vessels maad of erthe and glas\u2019 (CY 791); \u2018Housbonds at chirche-dore I have had five\u2019 (WB 6). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since apostrophes are not used to show possession in Middle English, however, modern readers must rely on context to distinguish between the plural and the possessive: in the sentence \u2018With fadres pitee stiking thurgh his herte\u2019 (Phy 211) grammatical form alone cannot make clear whether many fathers or one father\u2019s pity is referred to; in the sentence \u00a0\u2018If by his wives chere he mighte see\u2019 (Cl 599) it is unclear whether many wives or one wife\u2019s \u2018chere\u2019 is referred to.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nouns ending in -t are often written with the plural ending -z: \u2018Upon the tormentz of this sory place\u2019 (Sum 1701), \u2018Of chirche-reves, and of testamentz\u2019 (Fri 1307), while others add \u2013en in the plural: eyen<\/em> (eyes); been<\/em> (bees); toon<\/em> (toes) \u2014 although it should be noted that these words also appear in Chaucer\u2019s works with -s endings. A few nouns retain the same form in the singular and the plural, for example, \u2018oon thing I thee telle\u2019 (HF 2002) translates as \u2018one thing\u2019; while \u2018of swich thing\u2019 (Mk 2093) translates as \u2018such things\u2019. In addition, one set of plural nouns is formed by vowel mutations, in which a difference in meaning is indicated by a different pronunciation of the vowel in the stem is\u2014 many of these survive into Modern English \u2013 for example, men<\/em>, mys<\/em> (mice), feet<\/em>, gees<\/em>, teeth<\/em>. There are also nouns that don\u2019t change at all in the plural: sheep<\/em>, deer<\/em>, hors<\/em>. The same applies to nouns following numerals in expressions of time: \u2018A twelf-month\u2019 (GP 651); \u2018He was, I trowe, a twenty winter old\u2019 (WB 600). Likewise, there are a few genitive singular nouns that do not take the -s or -es ending: among them, ‘my fader saule’ (my father\u2019s soul) (Mk 1937).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n This table shows the basic forms nouns take in Middle English: <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Middle English, pronouns are much like their Modern English counterparts, except for the third person plural genitive pronoun: hir(e)<\/em> (their), and the third person plural accusative hem<\/em> (them): <\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that \u2018his\u2019<\/em> is the genitive for both the masculine and the neuter pronoun: \u2018Astonieth with his wonderful worching\u2019 (Astonishes with its wondrous working) (PF 4-5). In Chaucer\u2019s English, as in modern French, we tend to see singular pronouns (thee, thou, etc.) applied to children and servants, and plural pronouns (ye, you, etc.) used to address superiors. The distinction, while not consistent, can be useful for interpreting social relationships in Chaucer\u2019s works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The plural form of \u2018this\u2019 is thise<\/em> or these<\/em> : \u2018And thise ymages, wel thou mayst espye\u2019 (SN 509). The plural form of\u2018that\u2019 is tho<\/em>; while thilke<\/em> (\u2018the\u2019 + \u2018ilke\u2019, meaning \u2018the same\u2019) remains unchanged in the singular and the plural. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The relative pronouns most often found in Middle English are that <\/em>and which<\/em>, which are used for both people and things, so, when translating that<\/em>, it can be helpful to substitute a Modern English equivalent, such as who, whom, <\/em>or which<\/em>. In Middle English, the word who<\/em> is used as an interrogative referring to people, but it does not appear in the nominative as a relative pronoun. Another common pronoun, oother<\/em>, becomes ootheres <\/em>in the genitive singular, and oothere<\/em> in the plural. The prefix ther<\/em>\u2013 in pronouns such as therto <\/em>and therwith <\/em>often refers to the subject matter of the previous phrase. Note that therto <\/em>may be translated as \u2018in addition to all that\u2019 or \u2018in order to achieve that\u2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Middle English typically adds -s or -es to plural nouns, as well as to nouns in the genitive singular: \u2018And sondry vessels maad of erthe and glas\u2019 (CY 791); \u2018Housbonds at chirche-dore I have had five\u2019 (WB 6). Since apostrophes are not used to show possession in Middle English, however, modern readers must rely on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"parent":1034,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-435","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2060,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/435\/revisions\/2060"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/th> Singular<\/strong><\/th> Genitive<\/strong><\/th> Plural<\/strong><\/th> Translation<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Regular<\/strong><\/td> image<\/td> <\/td> images<\/td> (statue)<\/td><\/tr> <\/td> travail<\/td> <\/td> travailes<\/td> (labor)<\/td><\/tr> <\/td> knight<\/td> knightes<\/td> knightes<\/td> (knight)<\/td><\/tr> Irregular<\/strong><\/td> deer<\/td> <\/td> deer<\/td> (deer)<\/td><\/tr> <\/td> hors<\/td> horses<\/td> hors<\/td> (horse)<\/td><\/tr> Stem change (mutation)<\/strong><\/td> mous<\/td> mouses<\/td> mys<\/td> (mouse)<\/td><\/tr> <\/td> fot<\/td> <\/td> feet<\/td> (foot)<\/td><\/tr> -en plural<\/strong><\/td> fo, foo <\/td> <\/td> fon [foos]<\/td> (enemy)<\/td><\/tr> Short vowel <\/strong>
and consonant<\/strong><\/td>spot<\/td> spottes<\/td> spottes, spotten<\/td> (blemish)<\/td><\/tr> <\/td> cat<\/td> cattes<\/td> cattes<\/td> (cat)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Personal Pronouns <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Singular<\/strong><\/th> First Person<\/th> Second Person<\/th> Third Person<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Nominative<\/td> I\/Ich<\/td> thou<\/td> he, she, hit (it) <\/td><\/tr> Genitive<\/td> my, mine<\/td> thy, thine<\/td> his, hire, his (its) <\/td><\/tr> Accusative<\/td> me <\/td> thee<\/td> him, hire, hit (it)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nPlural<\/strong><\/th> First Person<\/th> Second Person<\/th> Third Person<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Nominative<\/td> we<\/td> ye<\/td> they<\/td><\/tr> Genitive<\/td> oure<\/td> your<\/td> hire, hir(e)<\/td><\/tr> Accusative<\/td> us<\/td> you<\/td> hem<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Demonstrative Pronouns<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Relative Pronouns <\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n