Strong Verbs Becoming Weak and Vice Versa

A number of strong verbs became weak in the NE period. Some of these verbs have preserved some strong forms alongside of the weak ones. e.g. The verb climb sometimes has a strong past form clomb, the verb melt – a second participle molten.

A few verbs preserving strong forms occasionally have new weak forms. Thus, the verb abide, whose past tense and second participle are usually abode, occasionally has the form abided in both cases. The verb wake or awake has, alongside of weak forms, a strong past tense awoke and a strong second participle (a)woke or (a)woken.

The process of strong verbs becoming weak is still continuing, though at a much slower rate.

In a few cases the opposite process occurred: weak verbs became strong. The OE weak verb hydan – hydde – hyded (hide), ME hiden – hidde – hidd became a Class I strong verb. The vowels of the infinitive, on the one hand, and of the past tense and second participle, on the other, which in this verb were the result of a long vowel shortened before two consonants, had coincided with the vowels of Class I strong verbs of the type bite-bit-bitten, where the past tense had followed the vowel of the past plural; as a result, a new strong second participle hidden was formed on the analogy of Class I strong verbs, alongside of hid.

In a few cases weak verbs underwent the influence of strong ones only partially. They preserved the weak form of the past tense, but acquired a weak second participle.

 

Irregular Weak Verbs Becoming Regular

A few irregular weak verbs became regular. The ME verb strecchen – straughte – straught became NE strecch – stretched – stretched. The original second participle of this verb has survived as the adjective straight.

 

Rise of Invariable Verbs

In NE a group of invariable verbs came into existence. Most verbs of this group stem from weak verbs with a root ending in -d or -t; a few of them come from strong verbs of different classes.

The ME verbs cutten – cutte – cutt, shutten – shutte – shut, setten – sette – sett, etc. became invariable as a result of the disappearance of unstressed endings: cut, shut, set, etc. Strong verbs becoming invariable were: Class III verb bresten – brast – brosten – brosten, NE burst and Class VII verb leten – let – leten – leten, which developed a weak past tense lette already in ME.

 

Preterite-Present Verbs

1. The verb can has been preserved. The absence of ending in the 3rd person singular present (he can) testifies to the verb originally belonging to the preterite – present type. The form could may be used to mean the Past Indicative or the Present Subjunctive.

2. The verb shall has been preserved in NE mainly as an auxiliary of the Future Tense. The form should has preserved its meaning of Past Tense only in the future in the past; in all other uses it has acquired a modal meaning instead of a temporal and has become an auxiliary of the conditional mood; besides, it has acquired a meaning close to that of ought. In most cases should no longer is a past tense of the verb shall, but a separate verb.

3. The verb may (past tense might) has been preserved in NE. The form might is hardly used as a past tense (except indirect speech). Owing to the modal meaning of the verb the form acquired a meaning of present conditional. The absence of an -s - ending in the 3rd person singular present indicative characterizes the verb as preterite – present.

4. The ME verb mot, moste. The form mote is sometimes found in Early NE as an archaism. The form moste had sometimes been used in a present meaning in ME already. This use and the change of the meaning can into must started from a use of the conditional form: ME þou moste (you might) came to mean “ you must”. In NE must is used as a present tense. Some verbs of this group disappeared.

 

The Verbs Be, Go, Do, Will

The verb be did not change much since the ME period. The main change was the penetration of the Northern form are into the present plural indicative instead of be. For the 2nd person singular past indicative we find a vacillation between the variants wert and wast. The former was derived by adding the –t ending to the ME form were; the latter was derived by adding the same ending to the form was. In the past tense, the distinction between the indicative (I) was, (he) was and the subjunctive (I) were, (he) were has been preserved; however, in colloquial style there is a tendency to use (I) was, (he) was instead of (I) were, (he) were.

The verb be is the only English verb to have retained the difference between Past Singular and Past Plural. Such forms as (we) was, (you) was, (they) was are felt as vulgarisms and are not admitted into the literary and colloquial styles.

The verb do has undergone changes common to weak verbs; besides, in the forms dost, does, doth, done the vowel has been shortened. The form did no longer divides into two morphemes in NE.

In the verb go the past form went has been preserved, while the form yede disappeared.

The verb will, would have preserved there forms in NE mostly as auxiliary verbs. The form will is used as an auxiliary of the future tense, and would as an auxiliary of the future in the past and the conditional mood. In NE would, in some cases of its use, can no longer be considered a form of will, but has become a separate verb.