Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest form of the English language that was spoken and written in England from the mid-5th century to the 11th century. During this time, English was a highly inflected language with complex grammar and vocabulary. A simple sentence in Old English would typically consist of a subject and a finite verb, with additional words providing more information about the subject or the verb. The word order in Old English sentences was more flexible than in Modern English, with the subject, verb, and object sometimes appearing in different orders. For example, the sentence "The man sees the house" in Old English could be written as "Se mann gesihð þone hūs." Let's break down this sentence: - "Se" means "the" in Modern English and is the definite article for a singular masculine noun. - "mann" means "man" and is the subject of the sentence. - "gesihð" means "sees" and is the finite verb in the present tense third person singular form. - "þone" means "the" in Modern English and is the definite article for a singular neuter noun. - "hūs" means "house" and is the object of the sentence. As you can see, the word order in this sentence is subject-verb-object, which is similar to Modern English. However, in Old English, the word order was more flexible, and the subject could appear before or after the verb. Old English also had a rich system of inflections, which means that the endings of the words would change depending on their grammatical function in the sentence. For example, in the sentence "Se mann gesihð þone hūs," the ending "-e" in "mann" indicates that it is the subject of the sentence, while the ending "-ð" in "gesihð" indicates the present tense third person singular form of the verb. Overall, a simple sentence in Old English would consist of a subject and a verb, with additional words providing more information. The word order in Old English was more flexible than in Modern English, and the language had a complex system of inflections.