Indicative: Present

Sg.                                     Pl.

I   eom, beo                            sint, sindon,earon

II eart, bist                             aron, beoÞ

III ia, biÞ

Past

I   wæs                                   wæron, wæren

II wære

III wæs

 

Subjunctive:                     Present

I, II, III   si, sie, sy, beo                     sin, sien, syn, beon

Past

wære                                           wæren

Imperative: wes, beo                            wesaÞ, beoÞ

 

Present Participle: weaende, beonde

The forms of this verb often coalese with the negative particle “ ne”.

e.g. ne is = nis ne wæron = næron ne wæs = næs

The forms wesan, wæs, wæron are derived according to Class V strong verbs. The forms derived from the root be are often used with the future meaning.

 

The Verb ʒan (go)

Infinitive: ʒ an; ʒanʒan

Indicative:                         Present

Sg.                           Pl.

               I ʒa

II ʒæst                          ʒaÞ

III ʒæÞ

 

Past

I   eode

II eodes                                 eodon

III eode

Imperative:    ʒ a                             ʒap

Subjunctive:                     Present

ʒa                             ʒan

Past

eode                         eoden

Participle I: ʒ ande, ʒanʒende

Participle II: ʒ e, ʒan

This verb has mutation in the 1st and 2nd persons Sg. Present Indicative.

 

The Verbs don and willan

These 2 verbs have some individual peculiarities. The verb don (do), like the verb ʒan, always has mutation in the 2nd and 3rd persons Sg. Pres. Ind. Its past tense is derived according to the weak conjugation. The alternation o/y is not clear.

The forms of the verb willan like the verb beon often coalesce with the negative particle ne: ne wille – nylle, nelle; ne wolde – nolde, etc. Indicative forms have been influenced by Subjunctive.

General Characteristics of the Old English Verb System

Aspects

The perfective aspect was expressed by the prefix ʒe-, sometimes by the prefixes a-, be-, for -

e.g. seffan – ʒeseffan (ставить)

risan – arisan (вставать)

ʒiefan –forʒiefan (давать)

Tenses

There were only 2 tenses, expressed by synthetic means in OE: the Present and the Past. The Future, if necessary, was expressed by lexical means.

 

Non-Finite Forms of the Verb

There are 2 non-finite forms of the verb in OE: the Infinitive and the Participle: Participle I and Participle II. Gerund didn't exist in OE.

The OE Present Participle has an active meaning and is formed with the help of the suffix –ende: rid ende – riding maci ende – making.

The Past Participle of the strong verbs is formed with the help of ablaut and the suffix -en: findan – fund en.

The Past Participle of the weak verbs is formed with the help of dental suffixes - d,-t: maco d, cep t.

The Past Participle (Part. II) often has the prefix ʒ e-, which strengthens the meaning of perfectivity: ʒ e macod, ʒ e funden.

Both participles agree in number, gender and case with nouns they modify and are declined like adjectives.

 

Moods

OE, just as other Germanic languages had 3 moods: Indicative, Subjunctive and Imperative.

The Indicative was used to express an action as real.

The Imperative expressed order or request to a 2nd person. Occasionally, the Imperative expressed wish.

The Subjunctive expressed an action that was merely supposed. It was widely used in OE both in main and in subordinate clauses. In the main clauses the Subjunctive was used to express a wish. In Subordinate clauses was used more widely especially in conditional clauses. It was also used in the clauses of concession and temporal clauses, having the meaning of supposition. It was also used in Indirect Speech, including indirect questions.

Analytical Formations

During the OE period the system of the verb acquired some analytical formations.

e.g. habban + Part. II

Originally these formations meant that the subject owned a thing, having a certain feature as a result of an action performed upon it. Then they acquired the meaning of the result of an action.

 e.g. ic habbe Þa boc ʒ ewrittan ( I have this book written).

Other formations:

beon + Part. II

e.g.: is his eaforda nu heard her cumen his son, the brave one, is now come here

sceal + infinitive; wille + infinitive (approach the meaning of future)

sceolde + infinitive; wolde + infinitive (acquire a modal meaning)

 

MIDDLE ENGLISH VERB SYSTEM

All types of verbs existing in OE (strong, weak, preterit-present, irregular) were preserved in ME. In each of these types we find some changes, due to the phonetic phenomena of the ME period, and changes, due to analogy. Besides, some verbs changed from the strong conjugation to the weak and some others from the weak to the strong.

 

Strong Verbs

a) The inflexions of verb conjugations were also leveled and reduced in ME. Thus the OE ending of the Infinitive -an and the ending of the past plural -on were both reduced and leveled to -en.

OE writt an, writ on – ME written

b) The OE perfective prefix ʒ e changed into -I and disappeared.

c) Grammatical alternation of consonants completely abandoned.

d) The four forms of the OE strong verbs were gradually reduced to three forms, because of the leveling of inflexions. In the 2nd and 3rd classes of strong verbs the 3rd form (Past Pl.) was leveled to the 4th form (Past Part.).

 

Class I

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
OE ridan	rad	ridon	riden
ME riden	rod	riden	riden
ME writen	wrot	writen	writen

Class II

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
chesen	ches	chosen	chosen

Class III

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
drinken helpen kerven (carve)	drank halp carf	drunken holpen corven	drunken holpen corven

Class IV

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
beren (bear)	bar	beren	boren

Class V

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
meten	mat	maten	meten

Some strong verbs of Class V passed over to class IV, e.g. speken was of class V and it passed over to class IV:

e.g. speken – spak – speken – spoken

Class VI

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
shaken	shok	shoken	shaken

Class VII

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
fallen	fell	fellen	fallen

Weak Verbs

There existed 3 classes of weak verbs in OE.

Peculiarities:

1. The inflexion -ian of class II (mac ian - ode,- od) and of some verbs of class I lost the element -i.

OE                           ME

locian                       looken

lufian                       loven

styrian                      sturen

 

2. The OE suffixes of the Past Tense and Past Participle of Class II -ode,- od were weakened to –ede,-ed:

OE                           ME

macode                    makede

macod                      maked

lufode                       lovede

lufod                                  leved

3. Class III lost its germination of consonants in the Infinitive:

OE                           ME

habban                    haven

4. However irregular weak verbs of Class I retained the vowel change in the Infinitive, Past Tense and Past Participle.This was due to the fact that in OE mutation occurred only in the Infinitive of these verbs:

e.g. OE Þenkan – Þohte – Þoht

ME thenken – thoughte – thought

The change of vowels remains in WE verbs such as to buy, to think, to teach, to tell, etc.

5. In some weak verbs with a stem ending in - 1,-n,-f,-v the Past suffix –d changes into -t; verbs with a stain in -rd, -nd, -ld formed their past in –rte, -nte, -lte and their 2nd Participle in -rt, -nt, -lt.

e.g: sendan – sende -send (OE)

sendun – sente – sent (ME)

 

Verb Conjugation

Verb Conjugation underwent considerable changes in ME. As a result of levelling of unstressed vowels the difference between the endings -an,-on, -en was lost. It proved stable only in some Participles II, where it has been preserved down to the NE period.

Furthermore differences between the 2nd and 3rd persons e.g. Present Indicative and in other Present Tense Forms due to mutation disappeared in ME.

In ME verb conjugation some OE inflexions still remained, while the others were modified.

The paradigms of conjugation varied according to dialects. The conjugation of the present tense of a strong verb in the 14th century Midland Dialects was as follows:

Present Indicative

Sg.                                  Pl.

I   binde                                           binden

II bindest (Northern -es)        binden (Northern bindes)

III bindeth (Northern -es)       binden (Southern bindeth)

Preterite-Present Verbs

OE Preterite-Present Verbs ware preserved in ME, except the verb ʒ eneah (to be enough), which was lost. Their forms underwent changes due to the general tendencies of the period.

The Verbs ben and gon (Suppletive Verbs). These two verbs inherited the OE system.

 

The Verb ben

Present Indicative

Sg.                      Pl.

I   am

II art                   ben (Nrth. am, South. beth)

III is

 

Past Indicative

Sg.                           Pl.

              I   was

II were                         weren

III was

 

The Verb gon

Present indicative

Sg.                           Pl.

I   go (ga) Northern forms

II gost (gast)                gon (gas) (South., Goth)

III goth (gas)

 

Past Indicative

Sg.                           Pl.

I   yede,wente

II yedest, wenteat          geden, wenten

III yede, wente

Forms of these The Verbs don and willen  developed from OE.

TheVerb don

Present Indicative

Sg.                           Pl.

I   do

II dost (North. dos)      don

III doth (North. dos)

 

Past Indicative

Sg.                           Pl.

I   dide, dude, dede

II didest                        diden

III dide

The Verb willen

Present Indicative

Sg.                           Pl.

I   wil, wol

II wilt, wolt                  wollen (North. willes;

South. willeth)

III wil, wol

 

Past Indicative

Sg.                           Pl.

I   wolde

II woldest                     wolden

III wolde