Fourth Declension ("weak") nouns are nouns whose stems end in a vowel (except for nouns that end in "u," which are either Third Declension or Minor Declension). You do not need to be concerned about the gender of a fourth declension noun.
Old English | Modern English |
blostma | flower |
draca | dragon |
eage | eye |
sceaða | enemy |
hæte | heat |
The endings for these nouns are given in the table below
(the dash - indicates that the stem gets no additional ending)
Case | Singular | Plural |
Nominative | - | an |
Genitive | an | ena |
Accusative | an | an |
Dative and Instrumental | an | um |
Case | OldEnglish | Translation |
Nominative | draca | dragon (subject) |
Genitive | dracan | of the dragon |
Accusative | dracan | dragon (direct object) |
Dative and Instrumental | dracan | with the dragon
dragon (indirect object) |
Case | OldEnglish | Translation |
Nominative | dracan | dragons (subject) |
Genitive | dracena | of the dragons |
Accusative | dracan | dragons (direct object) |
Dative/Instrumental | dracum | with the dragons
dragons (indirect object) |
Chapter 9 Vocabulary Words