This article provides a selection of the main grammatical differences between early modern and late modern English; many more can be found within the OED entries for individual words.

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Nouns and adjectives

As in modern English, the only regular noun inflection was the -s ending of the genitive and plural: irregular plurals were mostly the same as those that have survived into recent English. The use of an apostrophe in the genitive singular was optional in the sixteenth century; it was frequent in the seventeenth, but only became established around 1700. In the genitive plural the apostrophe was not used in this period.

An alternative form of the genitive singular throughout the period was the so-called ‘possessive dative’ as in ‘Job’s Patience, Moses his Meekness, Abraham’s Faith’ (Richard Franck, 1694). This was most commonly used after nouns ending in -s referring to masculines, perhaps because it was practically identical in sound with the regular genitive ending in -(e)s. A parallel use with her, e.g. ‘The Excellency of our Church her burial office’, and with their, also occurred.

In Middle English the group genitive (i.e. the genitive of a complex noun phrase like the king of England) was a split construction, e.g. ‘the kinges wyf of England’: this construction was still found in early modern English but was replaced by the familiar constructions seen in ‘the wife of the king of England’ or ‘the king of England’s wife’.

Adjective gradation. All three alternatives easier, more easy, and more easier, were acceptable in this period. In standard English, the rule by which –er and –est are preferred in monosyllabic words and more and most are used in polysyllabic ones, with variation in disyllabic words, was established by the late seventeenth century. In regional dialects -er continued to be preferred in all words, however long. The double comparative was generally used for emphasis (and was praised by the dramatist Ben Jonson).

Pronouns and determiners

Personal pronouns. In the second person, by 1600 ye was a rare alternative to you; no case distinction remained (in earlier English, ye was the subjective case and you the objective). The use of you as a ‘polite’ form of address to a single person progressively encroached on thou (originally the singular pronoun) until by 1600 thou (and its objective case thee) was restricted to ‘affective’ (both positive and negative) uses (i.e. so as to be intimate or disparaging). By the late seventeenth century you had become normal in almost all contexts and thou and thee were limited to the Bible and religious use, the Quakers, and regional dialects.

In the third person, the possessive of it was his until around 1600. Various alternatives arose, including it (‘it had it head bit off beit (= by it) young’, King Lear) and thereof (‘Sufficient vnto the daye, is the trauayle therof’, Great Bible, 1539); its first appeared in print in the 1590s and was rapidly accepted into the standard language.

Reflexive pronouns. The earlier use of the simple objective pronouns me, thee, us, and so on, became restricted largely to poetic use during the period, as in this example from Milton’s Paradise Lost: ‘Take to thee from among the Cherubim Thy choice of flaming Warriours’. Forms in –self (which early had been restricted to emphatic use) now became the usual ones; plurals—with –selves (replacing –self) after plural pronouns—made their appearance in the early sixteenth century.

Relative pronouns. The relative pronoun that remained common (as it still is), but a number of alternatives existed during the period. the which was inherited from Middle English but became rare by the mid-seventeenth century. which could be used for both persons and things but became rare for persons after 1611. who as a relative pronoun was rare in the fifteenth century and gradually became commoner in the period. The use of the so-called ‘zero relative’ (i.e. no pronoun at all) arose in Middle English but was rare in the sixteenth century. In the early modern period it could be used where the relative was the subject of its clause as well as object (now largely non-standard or poetic), e.g. ‘Life it self..is a burden [zero relative] cannot be born under the lasting..pressure of such an uneasiness’ (John Locke, 1694).

The co-occurrence rules for determiners were somewhat different from those in later modern English. Notably common was the sequence of demonstrative + possessive + noun (‘this your son’).

Verbs

The present tense. The second person singular inflection –est naturally declined in importance as the use of thou declined, giving rise to the current arrangement whereby in the present tense only the third singular is marked and all other persons take the base form.

At the start of the period, the normal third person singular ending in standard southern English was –eth. The form -(e)s, originally from Northern dialect, replaced –eth in most kinds of use during the seventeenth century. A few common short forms, chiefly doth, hath, continued often to be written, but it seems likely that these were merely graphic conventions.

Forming the past tense and past participle. The class of ‘strong’ verbs (those which indicate tense by a vowel change and do not have a dental segment added) included a number of verbs which are now only ‘weak’

Examples include: creep: crope, cropen; delve: dolve, dolven; help: holp, holpen; melt: molt, molten; seethe: sod, sodden.

A few ‘weak’ verbs moved into the strong class during the period, including dig, spit, and stick.

The formation of the past tense and past participle of strong verbs showed more variation in early modern English than today. There were a number of changes which began in Middle English and whose results have now been fossilized in present English but which produced a variety of forms in this period.

These were:
i. patterning the past tense on the past participle (as in tore after torn);
ii. adapting the past tense or past participle to verbs with a different pattern (as in slung after sung, etc.);
iii. patterning the past participle on the past tense (as in sat)
iv. dropping the –en suffix of the past participle (as in sung as opposed to ridden).

For example, write had the regular past tense wrote, but also found were writ (with the vowel of the past participle) and wrate (patterned on gave or brake); the participle was written or writ (with loss of –en) and wrote (based on the past tense) was also found. Verbs like bear, break, speak, etc., regularly formed their past tenses with a (bare, brake, spake) and this pattern was even extended to other verbs (wrate, drave). Owing to the Great Vowel Shift these past forms lost their distinctiveness from the present stem (since in a widespread variety of pronunciation, the long a of the past became identical with the long open e of the present) and after 1600 forms with o from the past participle (bore, broke, spoke) became normal.

Regular ‘weak’ verbs in Middle English formed their past tense and past participles in –ed, pronounced as a separate syllable, as it still is in a few fossilized forms such as belovèd, blessèd. During the sixteenth century the vowel was lost in this ending except where the preceding consonant was t or d (e.g. in hated) and the d of the ending was devoiced to [t] after a voiceless consonant (e.g. in locked as opposed to logged). Present English spelling does not regularly show these three variants [id], [d], [t] but in early modern English ‘phonetic’ spellings (’d, d, ’t, t) are quite often found. (This can lead to the obscuration of other distinctions; for example, it is sometimes unclear whether rap’t represents rapped or raped.)

There was an inherited class of verbs which end in a dental and do not add a dental ending to show the past (e.g. cast, set). This class was temporarily enlarged by the borrowing of Latin participles ending in –t used initially as participles and past tenses, e.g. ‘Moste playnly those thynges sem to be euydent, whiche of offyce and good maner be gyue and precept of them’ (Robert Whittinton, 1534), ‘That the pain should be mitigate’ (1560). These were subsequently used in other forms of the verb and developed regular past forms in –ed.

Modal and auxiliary verbs

to be

The present tense of the verb to be has be-forms alongside the forms (am, are) used in current English: I be, thou beest, we, you, or they be. These were quite common in the sixteenth century, but became rare in the seventeenth, and were ultimately limited to regional dialect. The perfect of intransitive verbs, especially verbs of motion, continued (as in Middle English) to be frequently formed with to be rather than to have. Shakespeare normally uses to be with creep, enter, flee, go, meet, retire, ride, and run.

to do

The periphrastic use of the verb to do, (e.g. ‘those things we do esteeme vaine’ as opposed to ‘to those persons we esteem vain’) arose in Middle English, but its frequency in fifteenth-century prose is below 10 per cent. However, its use in all kinds of sentence rose rapidly during the sixteenth century.

In negative and affirmative direct questions (e.g. do or did you (not) love?), and negative declaratives and imperatives (e.g. I do or did not love, do not love) it virtually displaced the non-periphrastic uses (love(d) you (not)?, I love(d) not, love not) by 1700.

The use of the periphrastic construction in affirmative declarative sentences (I do or did love), however, declined rapidly in the late sixteenth century. After the do-construction had completely displaced the non-periphrastic one in questions and negatives, its use in affirmative declaratives became, in the eighteenth century, a marker of emphasis.

The use of to be + the present participle of the verb is rare in the early modern English period, and the modern use, indicating immediate present action, is absent. Such uses as are found appear to intensify the action: ‘let your plough therfore be going and not cease’ (Hugh Latimer, 1549). There existed a gerundial construction which was similar in form—he is a-praying—and which may have influenced the development of the progressive use. The to be + present participle construction had no passive: ‘the ark was being built’ was expressed by the active the ark was building or the gerundial the ark was in building or a-building.

Gerunds, adverbs, and conjunctions

The gerund (which has the capability of governing an object or complement) came in this period to be used alongside the verbal noun, giving rise to various mixed uses which are difficult to classify: ‘as in reciting of playes, reading of verses, &c, for the varying the tone of the voice’ (John Evelyn, 1665).

Adverbs without the ending –ly were much commoner in this period.

Examples include:

• ‘No man spake clear, equal, or without artifice’ (Paul Rycaut, 1681)
• ‘This proclamacion..was..fair writen in parchment’ (Thomas More, a1535)

The compound adverbs of the form here, there, and where + preposition were in widespread use as equivalents of preposition + this, that (or it), and what, e.g. ‘To make there through a nauigable passage’ (Thomas Blundeville, 1594).

Compound subordinating conjunctions with that as their second element were common in this period.

Examples include:

• ‘The propertie thereof is to mount alwaies vpwards, vntill that it hath attained to the place destinated vnto it’ (R. Dolman, 1601).
• ‘Though that the Queene on speciall cause is here, Hir army is moued on’ (William Shakespeare, King Lear)

The sentence

Inversion of verb and subject

After an adverbial element, a conjunction, or an object, this was frequent in the sixteenth century (perhaps in as many as one-third of sentences), but dropped sharply after 1600.

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Examples include:

• ‘And hereof commeth the destruction of the reprobates’ (James Bell, 1581)
• ‘My case is hard, but yet am I not so desperat as to reuenge it vpon my selfe’ (Holinshed’s Chronicle, 1587)
• ‘The sylinges and geastes maketh he off Cedre’ (Bible (Coverdale) 1535)

The multiple negative

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In Old and Middle English it was unexceptional to negate more than one element of a sentence, and this remained down to the early seventeenth century, subsequently becoming rare or nonstandard.

Examples include:

• ‘I wyll not medle with no duplycyte’ (Stephen Hawes, 1503)
• ‘I can nat sette a gowne, I was never no taylour’ (John Palsgrave, 1530)
• ‘Hee absented not himselfe in no place’ (Philemon Holland, 1606).

Where next with the OED Online?

1. there’s more on the development of early modern English in this overview article, also written by Edmund Weiner. A growing list of commentaries on English in time, charting historical lexicography from Old English to the modern day, is also available.
2. OED Online traces the usage of words through 3 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, including more than 2000 quotations from the philosopher John Locke and nearly 5000 from the diarist John Evelyn. You can also search by source: for example, the OED includes more than 5000 quotations from Paradise Lost.

How do I search for these? with subscriber access to the OED Online you can search the dictionary’s quotation evidence using the Advanced Search option. To search across the OED‘s 3 million quotations by text, author, work title or date use, click on the Quotations tab. The OED also provides thousands of links to authors with entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, to set writers and their work in context.

About the OED

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This post include detailed expressions of Simple Present Tense in english. Please follow the list;

The tenses simply show the time of an action.

SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE
Simple Present Tense indicates an action which happens in the present, but it isn’t necessary for actions to happen right now. Simple present tense indicates, unchanging situations, general truths, scientific facts, habits, fixed arrangements and frequently occuring events.

POSITIVE FORM (+):Subject ( I, You, We, They ) + V₁ ( First Form of Verb )

Subject ( He, She, It ) + VERB – S / ES / IES

NEGATIVE FORM (-) :Subject ( I, You, We, They ) + do not / don’t + V₁ ( First Form of Verb )

Subject ( He, She, It ) + does not / doesn’t + V₁ ( First Form of Verb )

QUESTION FORM (?) :Do + Subject ( I, You, We, They ) + V₁ ( First Form of Verb )

Does + Subject ( He, She, It ) + V₁ ( First Form of Verb )

NEGATIVE QUESTION FORM (?) :Do not ( Don’t ) + Subject ( I, You, We, They ) + V₁ ( First Form of Verb )

Does not ( Doesn’t ) + Subject ( He, She, It ) + V₁ ( First Form of Verb)

SHORT ANSWER FORMS ( + / – ) : YES / NO + Subject ( I, You, We, They )+ do / do not (don’t)

( + / – ) : YES / NO + Subject ( He, She, It ) + does / does not (doesn’t)

Notes:

1. In Simple Present Tense, we add the suffix -s at the end of the verbs for the third singular subjects ( He, She, It ) . On the other hand, we use first forms of the verbs for other subjects ( I, You, We, You, They).

2. Although we add the suffix -s at the end of the verb for the third singular subjects in possitive sentences, We remove the suffix -s at the end of the verb in questions and negative sentences because of being used ‘does’ or ‘doesn’t’ as an auxillary verb.

Common tense markers:

Every day, week, month, night, year, summer, etc. / These days / Nowadays / Always / All the time / Most of the time / Never / Often / Rarely / Sometimes / Usually

Examples:

• My mother doesn’t let go to the movies with my friends.
• Do you prefer your coffee black?
• I put the keys on the table.
• The teacher shouts at us all the time.
• I don’t have any brothers or sisters.
• Does coffee grow in Brazil?
• Do not ( Don’t ) you get tea?

Notes:

We use other question words ( Like Who, What, Why , How much / many, How often etc.) in present tense.

Question Words (who, what, why, how much / many, how often etc.) + do / does + subject pronoun ( he, she, it, I, you, we, they) + V₁ ( First Form of Verb )

Examples:

• Where do you wait for him every month?
• How often does he call you?
• Why do you always do this?
• How much does it cost?
• How often do you use the internet?

USING OF SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE:

1. Simple Present Tense expresses habits and repeated (regular) actions.

Examples:

• She gets up early in the mornings.
• The child drinks milk every day.
• I go to the school by servis car.
• Thomas always listens to slow musics.
• I don’t like playing football.
• Nowadays, almost all of the children spend most of their day in front of television.
• Sarah usually comes to the work on foot.
• He eats breakfast everday.
• They never write letter to me.
• I brush my teeth twice a day.
• My mother always criticizes me.
• Do you like going to school every day ?
• I feed my fish every day at 8 o’clock in the morning.
• She doesn’t listen to the radio very much.
• We like spend time at home.
• He goes to the hospital for dialysis three days a week.
• You rarely sleep late.
• Do you like getting up early on Sundays?

2. Present Tense expresses general truths or scientific facts.

Examples:

• The sun does not turn around the Earth.
• Dogs love bone.
• Water boils at 100 ^o C.
• The Moon revolves around the Earth.
• The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
• Cats like playing with ball.
• It never snows in summer.
• Water freezes at zero centigrade degree.
• Mouses like cheese.

3. Present Tense expresses scheduled programs or arranged future.

Examples:

• The bus leaves at 08:00 am on Tuesdays.
• The examination starts at 9 o’clock tomorrow.
• The train leaves for Paris at 10:00 pm.
• The lesson starts at nine every day.
• The plane leaves at 10:30 in the evening.
• The program starts every day at 10:30 am on weekdays.
• My brother comes tomorrow.
• The bus goes at half past 5 pm.
• The film starts at 8 o’clock every week.
• The festival starts on April 15th and closes on May 15th.

4. Simple Present Tense is used for instantaneous situations ( like sports commentaries)

Examples:

• Ronaldo passes the ball to Benzema.
• Anthony maintains his lead over the other tennis players.

5. We can use simple present tense when telling stories.

Examples:

• Superman opens the door and enters to the room.
• Suddenly, the window opens and a masket man enters.

6. This tense is also used to give directions and instructions

Examples:

• Go straight along the road and turn left at the corner.
• Pour the contents into a large container and mix with milk.
• First of all, break the eggs and whisk with sugar.

7. This tense is also used in ceremonial and formal conversations.

Examples:

• I name this ship as ‘Freedom’.
• I pronounce you man and wife.
• I invite the president to the stage

8. Newspaper headlines usually are expressed in simple present tense.

Examples:

• PEACE TALKS FAIL
• GREAT EARTHQUAKE KIILS 1000 PEOPLE IN SAN FRANCISCO
• MAN ENTERS SPACE
• TITANIC SINKS, 1500 DIE

9. We often use present tense to talk about the future in clauses with time words ( like after, when, before, as soon as, until)

Examples:

• I will call you before I leave.
• Teachers will announce when students come to the school.
• Charles will buy himself a mobile phone after he arrives America.
• He’ll do it when he come back home.
• As soon as you push this button the door will open.
• You will tidy up the room until I come home from the outside.

10. We can also use simple present tense with non- progressive or non-action verbs which do not receive suffix – ing and generally express the situation, emotion, desire, ownership and thought. They do not include action ( like sitting, getting up, running, sleeping, drinking, eating).

We can add ‘–ing’ at the end of these verbs if these verbs include action.

Examples:

• She doesn’t believe him becuse he always says lies her.
• I believe that you are innocent.
• I like to play basketball.
• My child needs a bike.
• You look very beautiful.
• Do you have any children?
• This food smells very bad.

TIME EXPRESSIONS:

• Every ( day, week, month, year, weekend, Monday ,etc.)
• Once / twice / three times a week / month / year
• Mountly
• In the evenings / mornings / afternoons
• On Sundays / Mondays, Fridays, etc.

ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY:

• Always
• Almost always
• Usually
• Generally
• Normally
• Very often
• Often / frequently
• Sometimes
• Occasionally / Rarely / Seldom
• Hardly / Hardly ever
• Never

Notes:

In Simple Present Tense, we add the suffix –s / -es / -ies at the end of the verbs for the third singular subjects ( He, She, It )

1. If the verbs end with a consonant or a vowel, we generally add just –s at the end of the verbs.

• play — plays
• drink — drinks
• smell — smells
• pray — prays
• read — reads
• look — looks
• stay — stays
• buy — buys
• enjoy — enjoys
• help — helps
• smoke — smokes
• like — likes
• love — loves
• take — takes
• move — moves
• save —- saves
• make — makes
• die — dies
• see — sees
• come — comes

2. If the verbs end with -ss, -x, -sh, -ch, and -o we add -es at the end of the verbs.

• pass — passes
• miss — misses
• watch — watches
• catch — catches
• fix — fixes
• mix — mixes
• push — pushes
• wash — washes
• go — goes
• do — does

3. If Verbs ends with a consonant + ‘–y’, we remove the -y and add –ies at the end of the verbs.

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Examples:

A Grammar Of Present Day English Krylova

• fly — flies
• cry — cries