Old English/Prepositions of Time

Old English prepositions of time, which detail the temporal relationships of their sentences.

Dative
Prepositions of time in the dative case generally concern events within a certain block of time.

Innan

 * 1) within the limits of a period, in; híe ƿendon innan þǽre middanƿintres tíde they went within the limits of midwinter time

On

 * On with the dative is used with generic time nouns, such as dæg and gēar.
 * 1) on + gēare: hæbbe ic þriƿa on gēare mid tōþlǣccan gesetne dæg - I have a set day with a dentist thrice in the year.
 * 2) on + þǣm + ǣrdæge: on þǣm ǣrdæge ēodon hīe tō cirican - in early morning they went to church.

Tōgeagnes

 * 1) on the approach of, towards; tōgeagnes Ēastran cōm þæs pāpan sande the pope's legate came towards Easter

On

 * on/in a day, month, year; This is used with the accusative with named days and months


 * 1) on + dæg: gif gē lesaþ ƿyrte on Sunnandæg - if you gather roots on Sunday
 * 2) on + mōnaþ: se ǣresta Frīgedæg þe man sceal fæsten is on Hlȳdan (Hrēþmōnaþ) - the first Friday that one shall fast is in March
 * 3) on + morgen: on morgen gā ic tō scōle - in the morning I go to school

No Preposition
Often cases can be used to indicate when something happens. This is often used with the dative, but can also be accusative and genitive.
 * Sunnan dagum gā ic tō cirican (or on Sunnandagum) - Sundays I go to church.
 * Sunnan dæges cēapinge ne dōþ man (on gehƿamlicum Sunnandæge) - Sunday one does not do marketing.
 * þȳ gēare æfter his lyre (oþþe on gēare) - the year after his loss (instrumental case)