2.6.6.1. Strong Declension of Adjectives

wīs (wise) dol (foolish)

	Masculine gender		Neuter gender		Feminine gender
Case	Sg	Pl	Sg	Pl	Sg	Pl
Nom.	wīs dol	wīse dole	wīs dol	wīs dolu	wīs dolu	wīsa dola
Gen.	wīses doles	wīsra dolra	wīses doles	wīsra dolra	wīsre dolre	wīsra dolra
Dat.	wīsum dolum	wīsum dolum	wīsum dolum	wīsum dolum	wīsre dolre	wīsum dolum
Acc.	wīsne dolne	wīse dole	wīs dol	wīs dolu	wīse dole	wīsa dola
Inst.	wīse dole	– –	wīse dole		– –	– –

Note. Adjectives with a short root syllable, like dol, retained the ending –u in the nominative singular feminine and neuter, and accusative plural neuter, whereas adjectives with a long syllable, like wīs, had already lost it.

2.6.6.2. Weak Declension of Adjectives

	Sg number			Pl number
Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	All genders
Nom.	wīsa, dola	wīse, dole	wīse, dole	wīsan, dolan
Gen	wīsan, dolan	wīsan, dolan	wīsan, dolan	wīsra, dolra (-ena)
Dat.	wīsan, dolan	wīsan, dolan	wīsan, dolan	wīsum,dolum
Acc.	wīsan, dolan	wīse, dole	wīsan, dolan	wīsan, dolan
Inst.	wīsan, dolan	wīsan, dolan	wīsan, dolan	wīsum,dolum

2.6.6.3. Degrees of Comparison

Qualitative adjectives acquired inflections for degrees of comparison. The ending of the comparative degree was –ra, of the superlative – ost/est: heard - heardra - heardost (hard– harder – hardest).

These endings were an OE development of the Gc suffixes *-ozan and *ōsta or *-izan and -*ista.This accounts for cases like lanʒ - lenʒra - lenʒest, where the mutation of [a>e] was caused by the sound [i] and the ending –est was the reduction of -ista (i-umlaut):

eald – ieldra (< *ealdira) –ieldest ( < *ealdist) (old – elder – eldest)

stronʒ – strenʒra (< *stronʒira) - strenʒest (< *stronʒist) (strong –stronger – strongest)

ʒeonʒ - ʒinʒra (<*ʒeonʒira) - ʒinʒest (< *ʒeonʒist) (young – younger – youngest)

Several adjectives had suppletive forms of comparative and superlative degrees (from different roots with the same meaning). This group is the oldest. It goes back to the period when there were no suffixes of comparative and superlative degrees and different degrees of qualities were denoted by different words:

ʒōd – betera – betst (good – better – best)

yfel (evil)- wiersa – wierest (bad – worse – worst)

micel (large) –māra – mǣst (much – more – most)

lӯtel – lǣssa – lǣst (little – less – least)

This group survived in ModE.