Putting It Together
Middle English Grammar 1
Chapter 10 · Putting It Together
📜 Putting It Together
Nine chapters gave you pieces: letters, nouns, the article, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, the irregular verbs, negation and borrowed words. This chapter gives a routine for using them on a real line, tries it on six short lines of Chaucer, and then recaps. Where a chapter's source was silent, the routine says to stop rather than guess.
The routine
- Spot the verb first. Look for an ending: -eþ / -th, -en, -ed, or an irregular form (Chapters 6 and 7).
- Find the pronouns. Match them against the table in Chapter 5. Remember that his can mean "its".
- Find the little words. the, this, that, a (Chapter 3), and look at the adjective that follows for a final -e (Chapter 4).
- Check nouns for -es or -en (Chapter 2).
- Look at negatives and borrowed words (Chapters 8 and 9).
- Read the spelling aloud with the cautions from Chapter 1.
Trying it on Chaucer
The lines are from Skeat's 1900 edition of The Canterbury Tales, the Prologue, on Wikisource, as the page tool gave them. The History of the English Language, Chapter 3, quotes the same opening and spells one word differently (soote there, sote in Skeat), which is ordinary variation between editions. My notes are mine and unverified.
| Line | What the routine finds |
|---|---|
| Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote | shoures has the strong plural ending (Chapter 2). his is the neuter possessive "its" (Chapter 5's table lists his for the neuter). |
| The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote, | hath is the 3rd singular of have, matching haþ in Chapter 7. perced ends in -ed, the weak dental ending (Chapter 6). the is the reduced article (Chapter 3). |
| And bathed every veyne in swich licour, | bathed ends in -ed, again the weak ending (Chapter 6). veyne is a noun in the singular, ending in -e (compare Chapter 1's silent e). |
| Of which vertu engendred is the flour; | is is the 3rd singular of be (Chapter 7). engendred ends in -ed. Several of the nouns here (vertu, licour) may be French; Chapter 9 gave the French categories, not these words, so I do not say. |
| A Knight ther was, and that a worthy man, | was is the past of be (Chapter 7). a is the indefinite article (Chapter 3). worthy has no final -e, which fits Chapter 4: it is not plural, not after the, this or that, and not addressing someone. |
| That fro the tyme that he first bigan | he is the Chapter 5 masculine subject. bigan looks like a past tense made by a vowel change, as a strong verb does, but none of the chapters' sources lists it, so that is my reading only. |
Recap of the course
| Chapter | The core fact |
|---|---|
| 1 Letters and Sounds | Thorn, yogh and the silent final e |
| 2 Nouns | Strong plural -(e)s, weak -(e)n, genitive -es; dative lost |
| 3 The, This and That | þe, þis, þat; a / an |
| 4 Adjectives | Final -e after the, demonstratives, possessives, in the plural and in address; -er / -est |
| 5 Pronouns | Subject and object forms kept; she new; they from Norse |
| 6 Verbs | Present endings; plural Southern -eþ, Midland -en, Northern -es; weak and strong past |
| 7 Be, Have, Do, Will | Irregular forms; modals with no ending in the 1st and 3rd singular |
| 8 Questions and Negation | ne, then ne ... not, then not; no source for questions |
| 9 Borrowed Words | Norse grammar words; French vocabulary and affixes; proposed effects on grammar |
What the course could not give
- A full noun, article or verb paradigm: three of the source tables came through garbled.
- Dialect forms beyond the verb plural, and anything specific to Chaucer's London English.
- Middle English question formation, and the use of do and will as helpers.
- A grammar book. Every chapter used online encyclopedia and dictionary pages, as stated on each.
middleenglish_reading1 course is meant to read longer Middle English texts with this grammar in hand; it has not been written yet.
✏️ Try It Yourself
Think of the answer first, then click to check.
1. In hath perced, which is the weak-verb form and which the form of have?
Show answer
perced is the weak past with -ed; hath is the 3rd singular of have.
2. What does his mean in with his shoures sote?
Show answer
"Its", since the table lists his as the neuter possessive.
3. Why does worthy in a worthy man have no final -e?
Show answer
It is singular, follows a rather than the or a demonstrative, and is not in direct address.
4. Which line contains a plural noun with the strong ending?
Show answer
The first: shoures.
5. What is is in engendred is the flour?
Show answer
The 3rd singular present of be.
6. Why does the chapter not call bigan a strong verb for certain?
Show answer
None of the sources lists it, so that reading is the author's only.
7. Name the dialect plural endings of the present tense.
Show answer
Southern -eþ, Midland -en, Northern -es.
8. Which part of Middle English grammar did the sources not describe at all?
Show answer
Question formation (and the use of do and will as helpers).
middleenglish_reading1 when it is written.