Modern English Is a Subject, Verb, Object Language

In old english, the word gift had a specific ending which told you that it was the subject of the sentence. But what if i wanted to say, he hid the gift? Now gift is the object of the sentences. Linguists have also noticed certain patterns and tendencies in the earliest old English text. For example, just over half the sentences in alfred's translation of pastoral care put the verb before the objects. So even though there was still no fixed word order, there was this increasing tendency to use the subject, then the verb, then the object.