 Early Old Swedish was markedly different from the modern language in that it had a more complex case structure and yet retained the original Germanic three @-@ gender system . Nouns , adjectives , pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases ; besides the extant nominative , there were also the genitive ( later possessive ) , dative and accusative . The gender system resembled that of modern German , having masculine , feminine and neuter genders . The masculine and feminine genders were later merged into a common gender with the definite suffix -en and the definite article den , in contrast with the neuter gender equivalents -et and det . The verb system was also more complex : it included subjunctive and imperative moods and verbs were conjugated according to person as well as number . By the 16th century , the case and gender systems of the colloquial spoken language and the profane literature had been largely reduced to the two cases and two genders of modern Swedish . 
