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Weak Verbs

The group of weak verbs was more numerous than that of strong verbs. Their number was constantly growing since all new verbs derived from other stems were conjugated weak. Among weak verbs there were many derivatives of OE nouns and adjective stems [Rastorgueva, 2001].

OE talu n tellan v (NE tale, tell)
OE full adj. fyllan v (NE full, fill)

Weak verbs form their preterite tense and the past participle by means of a suffix containing d or t. These are the verbs with no stem-vowel changes in any tense. They are grouped into three classes:

1.To Class II belong verbs whose principal parts end in – ian, –ode, –od:

Infinitive Preterite Past Participle
lufian (love) lufode lufod
rīcsian (rule) rīcsode rīcsod

2.To Class III belong only four verbs:

secgan (say) sægde sægd
habban (have) hæfde hæfd
libban (live) lifde lifd
hycgan (think) hogde (hogod)

3.All other weak verbs belong to Class I, with several subdivisions, e.g.

nerian (save) nerede nered
timbran (build) timbrede timbred
dēman (judge) dēmde dēmed
sellan (give) sealde seald
sēcan (seek) sōhte sōht
wyrcan (work) worhte worht

 

The personal endings of the Present Indicative are as follows [dēman (to judge); timbran (to build); lufian (to love); erian (plough), sēcan (seek)].

  1st 2nd        
1. –e –ie dēme timbre lufie erie
2. –(e)st –ast dēmst timbrest lufast erest
3. –(e)þ –aþ dēmþ timbreþ lufaþ ereþ
1 – 3. –aþ –iaþ dēmaþ timbraþ lufiaþ eriaþ
      most of the weak verbs of Class I with a long root -syllable some weak verbs of Class I (hyngran; seglan; frefran) all weak verbs of Class II all weak verbs of Class I ending in – ian

The personal endings of the Preterite Indicative of weak verbs are identical for the three classes:

1. - e lufode dēmde timbrede erede sōhte
2. - est lufodest dēmdest timbredest erede sōhtest
3. - e lufode dēmde timbrede erede sōhte
1 – 3. -on lufodon dēmdon timbredon eredon sōhton

Date: 2014-12-22; view: 1519


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Strong Verbs | Preterite-Present Verbs
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