Forming the plural of certain nouns [OE -an]: (a) retained in all the dialects in ei-en eyes, ēr-en ears, and ox-en throughout the ME period, although ei-es and ēr-es appear in later ME; (b) retained until late in the Southern dialects in most of the nouns that had the -an plural in OE: e.g. sterr-en stars, hert-en hearts; (c) extended, in the Southern dialects, to many nouns that formed the plural in a vowel in OE: e.g. spēr-en spears [OE sper-u], wǒund-en wounds [OE wund-a], dēd-en deeds [OE dǣd-a], sǒn-en sons [OE sun-a], dur-en doors [OE dur-a]; (d) added to the -re plurals, whence child-ren beside child-re [OE cild-ru], lamb-ren beside lamb-re [OE lamb-ru], calv-ren [OE calf-ru]; (e) extended to sho-n shoes [OE scō-s] and to kī-n cows [OE cȳ]. In the Northern dialects the plural ending -es [OE -as] had almost entirely replaced -en [OE -an] by 1200. In the Midland dialects the replacement occurred later in the ME period, while the Southern dialects largely retained the -en, and even extend it to nouns that did not end in -an in OE. This replacement is obviously connected with the reduction of -en to -e, which destroyed the old contrast between the sing. and the plur. forms in many nouns.

Forming certain oblique cases in early ME: (a) the gen., dat., and acc.sg. of nouns that ended in -an in OE: e.g. sterr-en, tung-en, hert-en [OE steorr-an, tung-an, heort-an]; (b) the gen.pl. of many nouns [OE -ena]; (c) the dat.pl. of any noun [OE -um].