The formula of this class: i/e - a - reduction – i

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
i/e risan (to rise) ridan (to ride) scino (to shine) bitan (to bite)	a ras rad scan bat	reduction rison ridon scinon biton	i risen ridden scinen biten

Class II (u-class).

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
eo beodan sceotan ceosan	ea bead sceat ceas	u budon scuton curon	o boden scoten coren

Class III. Formula: i/e – a – reduction + sonor. + cons. (plosive)

This class is subdivided into 3 subclasses:

a) i/e – a – reduction +nasal + consonant (plosive).

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
i findan sinʒan bindan drincan	a(o) fand sanʒ band dranc	u fundon sunʒon bundon druncon	u funden sunʒen bunden drunken

b) i/e - a - reduction + 1 +consonant (plosive)

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
e helpan	ea healp	u hulpon	o holpen

c) i/e - a - reduction + r or h + consonant (plosive)

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
eo weorÞan	ea wearÞ	u wurÞon	o worÞen

Class IV. Formula: i/e - a - reduction + sonorant alone (l, m, r)

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
e stelan beran	æ stæl bær	æ stælon bæron	o stolen boren

Class V is characterized by a noise consonant in the root (it is also rather small)

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
e cnedan etan sprecan	æ cnæd æt spræc	æ cnædon æton spræcon	e cneden eten sprecen

Class VI. Formula: i/e - a - reduction + quantitative ablaut

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
a bacan faran standan	o boc for stod	o bocon foron stodon	a bacen faren standen

Class VII. Formula: i/e - a - reduction + no regular ablaut

Most vowel interchanges in class VII resulted from the doubling of the root (reduplication) in the Past Tense-stems. (As Russian: дать – дадим (Future). That is why the Past Tense-stems have a long monophthong or a long, diphthong in the root.

 

Infinitive	Past Sg.	Past Pl.	Past Part.
blendan beatan cnawan	blend beot cneow	blendon beoton cneowon	blenden beaten cnawen

 

Weak Verbs

The number of weak verbs in OE exceeded that of strong verbs and was obviously growing. Among weak verbs we regularly find formations from noun and adjective atoms or also from some stems of strong verbs, which is a proof of the later appearance of weak verbs.

All weak verbs built their principal forms by adding a dental suffix to Present Tense stems. There are 3 classes of weak verbs in OE. Every weak verb is characterized by 3 forms: Infinitive, Preterite (Past) and Past Participle.

Class I

Regular Verbs of class I always have mutation in their root vowel due to the original i-element in the suffix.

 

Infinitive	Preterite	Past Participle
-an/-ian	-de/-ede/-te	-ed/-d/-t
deman nerian cepan	demde nerede cepte	demed nered cept, ceped

 

Irregular Verbs. These verbs had element -i, which produced mutation in the Infinitive only. In the Preterit there was no -i and so these forma had no mutation. As a result the vowel of the Preterit and Past Participle differs from that of the Infinitive:

e.g. tellan – tealde – teald

  sellan – sealde – seald

 

Class II

These verbs originally had the suffix -oi in the Infinitive and -o in the other forms. The infinitive suffix -oi was reduced to -i. The Infinitive of these verbs ends in -ian. In OE -o was preserved in the Preterite and Past Participle.

 

Infinitive	Preterite	Past Participle
-ian	-ode	-od
macian lufian	macode lufode	macod lufod

 

The absence of mutation in the infinitive is due to the fact that the i-element appeared at the time, when the prowess of mutation was already over.

 

Class III

Many verbs originally belonging to Class III have changed into Class I or Class II. Thus, class III was in OE in the process of disintegration, i.e. it was dying out in OE. The Infinitive of these verbs originally had the stem suffix - i, which produced germination. Only 3 verbs have survived: to have, to live, to say.

Infinitive	Preterite	Past Participle
-an	-da	-d
habban libban seæn	hæfde lifde sæʒde	hæfd lifd sæʒd

 

So, as it was said, the class of weak verbы has been the only productive class of verbs throughout the history of English. As to the origin of the dental suffix and how it came into use in Germanic little is certainly known.

1. Some scholars are inclined to regard it as developed from the root of the verb don (to do) – IE root -dhe, which stands in ablaut relation to the OE -don. On this theory such a form as OE lufode (loved) was supposed to be equivalent to: lufe + dyde - lova + did.

2. But other scholars think it also probable that the dental suffix in OE weak past participle goes back to the IE suffix -t- (IE -t - Germ. - d, according to Verner’s law) as in the -t of such Latin Participles lectus, amatus, or Russian Participles.