The scope of this book is indicated in § 5. It is intended for beginners, and in writing it, these words of Sir Thomas Elyot have not been forgotten: “Grammer, beinge but an introduction to the understandinge of autors, if it be made to longe or exquisite to the lerner, it in a maner mortifieth his corage: And by that time he cometh to the most swete and pleasant redinge of olde autors, the sparkes of fervent desire of lernynge are extincte with the burdone of grammer, lyke as a lyttell fyre is sone quenched with a great heape of small stickes.”—The Governour, Cap.X.
Only the essentials, therefore, are treated in this work, which is planned more as a foundation for the study of Modern English grammar, of historical English grammar, and of the principles of English etymology, than as a general introduction to Germanic philology.
The Exercises in translation will, it is believed, furnish all the drill necessary to enable the student to retain the forms and constructions given in the various chapters.
The Selections for Reading relate to the history and literature of King Alfred’s day, and are sufficient to give the student a first-hand, though brief, acquaintance with the native style and idiom of Early West Saxon prose in its golden age. Most of the words and constructions contained in them will be already familiar to the student through their intentional employment in the Exercises.
For the inflectional portion of this grammar, recourse has been had chiefly to Sievers’ Abriss der angelsächsischen Grammatik (1895). Constant reference has been made also to the same author’s earlier and larger Angelsächsishe Grammatik, translated by Cook. Amore sparing use has been made of Cosijn’s Altwestsächsische Grammatik.
For syntax and illustrative sentences, Dr. J. E. Wülfing’s Syntax in den Werken Alfreds des Grossen, Part I. (Bonn, 1894) has proved indispensable. Advance sheets of the second part of this great work lead one to believe that when completed the three parts will constitute the most important contribution to the study of English syntax that has yet been made. Old English sentences have also been cited from Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon Reader, Bright’s Anglo-Saxon Reader, and Cook’s First Book in Old English.
The short chapter on the Order of Words has been condensed from my Order of Words in Anglo-Saxon Prose (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, New Series, Vol. I, No.2).
Though assuming sole responsibility for everything contained in this book, Itake pleasure in acknowledging the kind and efficient assistance that has been so generously given me in its preparation. To none do I owe more than to Dr. J.E. Wülfing, of the University of Bonn; Prof. James A.Harrison, of the University of Virginia; Prof. W.S. Currell, of Washington and Lee University; Prof. J.Douglas Bruce, of Bryn Mawr College; and Prof. L.M. Harris, of the University of Indiana. They have each rendered material aid, not only in the tedious task of detecting typographical errors in the proof-sheets, but by the valuable criticisms and suggestions which they have made as this work was passing through the press.
C. ALPHONSO SMITH.
Louisiana State University,
Baton Rouge, September, 1896.
In preparing this enlarged edition, a few minor errors in the first edition have been corrected and a few sentences added. The chief difference between the two editions, however, consists in the introduction of more reading matter and the consequent exposition of Old English meter. Both changes have been made at the persistent request of teachers and students of Old English.
Uniformity of treatment has been studiously preserved in the new material and the old, the emphasis in both being placed on syntax and upon the affinities that Old English shares with Modern English.
Many obligations have been incurred in preparing this augmented edition. Ihave again to thank Dr. J.E. Wülfing, Prof. James A.Harrison, Prof. W.S. Currell, and Prof. J.Douglas Bruce. To the scholarly criticisms also of Prof. J.M. Hart, of Cornell; Prof. Frank Jewett Mather, Jr., of Williams College; and Prof. Frederick Tupper, Jr., of the University of Vermont, Iam indebted for aid as generously given as it is genuinely appreciated.
C. ALPHONSO SMITH.
August, 1898.
Among those who have kindly aided in making this edition free from error, Iwish to thank especially my friend Dr. John M.McBryde, Jr., of Hollins Institute, Virginia.
C. ALPHONSO SMITH.
University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, February, 1903.
The history of the English language falls naturally into three periods; but these periods blend into one another so gradually that too much significance must not be attached to the exact dates which scholars, chiefly for convenience of treatment, have assigned as their limits. Our language, it is true, has undergone many and great changes; but its continuity has never been broken, and its individuality has never been lost.
The first of these periods is that of Old English, or Anglo-Saxon,1 commonly known as the period of full inflections. E.g. stān-as, stones; car-u, care; will-a, will; bind-an, to bind; help-að (=ath), they help.
It extends from the arrival of the English in Great Britain to about one hundred years after the Norman Conquest,—from A.D. 449 to 1150; but there are no literary remains of the earlier centuries of this period. There were four2 distinct dialects spoken at this time. These were the Northumbrian, spoken north of the river Humber; the Mercian, spoken in the midland region between the Humber and the Thames; the West Saxon, spoken south and west of the Thames; and the Kentish, spoken in the neighborhood of Canterbury. Of these dialects, Modern English is most nearly akin to the Mercian; but the best known of them is the West Saxon. It was in the West Saxon dialect that King Alfred (849-901) wrote and spoke. His writings belong to the period of Early West Saxon as distinguished from the period of Late West Saxon, the latter being best represented in the writings of Abbot Ælfric (955?-1025?).
The second period is that of Middle English, or the period of leveled inflections, the dominant vowel of the inflections being e. E.g. ston-es, car-e, will-e, bind-en (orbind-e), help-eth, each being, as in the earlier period, adissyllable.
The Middle English period extends from A.D. 1150 to 1500. Its greatest representatives are Chaucer (1340-1400) in poetry and Wiclif (1324-1384) in prose. There were three prominent dialects during this period: the Northern, corresponding to the older Northumbrian; the Midland (divided into East Midland and West Midland), corresponding to the Mercian; and the Southern, corresponding to the West Saxon and Kentish. London, situated in East Midland territory, had become the dominant speech center; and it was this East Midland dialect that both Chaucer and Wiclif employed.
Note.—It is a great mistake to think that Chaucer shaped our language from crude materials. His influence was conservative, not plastic. The popularity of his works tended to crystalize and thus to perpetuate the forms of the East Midland dialect, but that dialect was ready to his hand before he began to write. The speech of London was, in Chaucer’s time, amixture of Southern and Midland forms, but the Southern forms (survivals of the West Saxon dialect) had already begun to fall away; and this they continued to do, so that “Chaucer’s language,” as Dr. Murray says, “is more Southern than standard English eventually became.” See also Morsbach, Ueber den Ursprung der neuenglischen Schriftsprache (1888).
The last period is that of Modern English, or the period of lost inflections. E.g. stones, care, will, bind, help, each being a monosyllable. Modern English extends from A.D. 1500 to the present time. It has witnessed comparatively few grammatical changes, but the vocabulary of our language has been vastly increased by additions from the classical languages. Vowels, too, have shifted their values.
It is the object of this book to give an elementary knowledge of Early West Saxon, that is, the language of King Alfred. With this knowledge, it will not be difficult for the student to read Late West Saxon, or any other dialect of the Old English period. Such knowledge will also serve as the best introduction to the structure both of Middle English and of Modern English, besides laying a secure foundation for the scientific study of any other Germanic tongue.
Note.—The Germanic, or Teutonic, languages constitute a branch of the great Aryan, or Indo-Germanic (known also as the Indo-European) group. They are subdivided as follows:
| Germanic |  |
North Germanic: Scandinavian, or Norse. | |||||
| East Germanic: Gothic. | |||||||
|
Old High German, |
||||||
|
High German |
Middle High German, |
|||||
 |
West Germanic | |
New High German, |
||||
|
Low German | |
Dutch, Old Saxon, |
||||
|
Frisian, English. |
||||||
1. This unfortunate nomenclature is due to the term Angli Saxones, which Latin writers used as a designation for the English Saxons as distinguished from the continental or Old Saxons. But Alfred and Ælfric both use the term Englisc, not Anglo-Saxon. The Angles spread over Northumbria and Mercia, far outnumbering the other tribes. Thus Englisc (=Angel + isc) became the general name for the language spoken.
2. As small as England is, there are six distinct dialects spoken in her borders to-day. Of these the Yorkshire dialect is, perhaps, the most peculiar. It preserves many Northumbrian survivals. See Tennyson’s Northern Farmer.
The long vowels and diphthongs will in this book be designated by the macron (–). Vowel length should in every case be associated by the student with each word learned: quantity alone sometimes distinguishes words meaning wholly different things: fōr, he went, for, for; gōd, good, God, God; mān, crime, man, man.
Long vowels and diphthongs:
| ā |
as in father: stān, a stone. |
| ǣ |
as in man (prolonged): slǣpan, to sleep. |
| ē |
as in they: hēr, here. |
| ī |
as in machine: mīn, mine. |
| ō |
as in note (pure, not diphthongal): bōc, book. |
| ū |
as in rule: tūn, town. |
| ȳ |
as in German grün, or English green (with lips rounded):1 brȳd, bride. |
The diphthongs, long and short, have the stress upon the first vowel. The second vowel is obscured, and represents approximately the sound of er in sooner, faster (=soon-uh, fast-uh). The long diphthongs (ǣ is not a diphthong proper) are ēo, īe, and ēa. The sound of ēo is approximately reproduced in mayor (=mā-uh); that of īe in the dissyllabic pronunciation of fear (=fē-uh). But ēa = ǣ-uh. This diphthong is hardly to be distinguished from ea in pear, bear, etc., as pronounced in the southern section of the United States (=bæ-uh, pæ-uh).
The short sounds are nothing more than the long vowels and diphthongs shortened; but the student must at once rid himself of the idea that Modern English red, for example, is the shortened form of reed, or that mat is the shortened form of mate. Pronounce these long sounds with increasing rapidity, and reed will approach rid, while mate will approach met. The Old English short vowel sounds are:
| a |
as in artistic: habban, to have. |
| æ |
as in mankind: dæg, day. |
| e, ę |
as in let: stelan, to steal, sęttan, to set. |
| i |
as in sit: hit, it. |
| o |
as in broad (but shorter): God, God. |
| ǫ |
as in not: lǫmb, lamb. |
| u |
as in full: sunu, son. |
| y |
as in miller (with lips rounded)1: gylden, golden. |
Note.—The symbol ę is known as umlaut-e (§ 58). It stands for Germanic a, while e (without the cedilla) represents Germanic e. The symbol ǫ is employed only before m and n. It, too, represents Germanic a. But Alfred writes manig or monig, many; lamb or lomb, lamb; hand or hond, hand, etc. The cedilla is an etymological sign added by modern grammarians.
The letters ę and ǫ were printed as shown in this e-text. The diacritic is not a cedilla (open to the left) but an ogonek (open to the right).
There is little difference between the values of Old English consonants and those of Modern English. The following distinctions, however, require notice:
The digraph th is represented in Old English texts by ð and þ, no consistent distinction being made between them. In the works of Alfred, ð (capital, Ð) is the more common: ðās, those; ðæt, that; bindeð, he binds.
The consonant c had the hard sound of k, the latter symbol being rare in West Saxon: cyning, king; cwēn, queen; cūð, known. When followed by a palatal vowel sound,—e, i, æ, ea, eo, long or short,—a vanishing y sound was doubtless interposed (cf. dialectic kyind for kind). In Modern English the combination has passed into ch: cealc, chalk; cīdan, to chide; lǣce, leech; cild, child; cēowan, to chew. This change (c > ch) is known as Palatalization. The letter g, pronounced as in Modern English gun, has also a palatal value before the palatal vowels (cf. dialectic gyirl for girl).
The combination cg, which frequently stands for gg, had probably the sound of dge in Modern English edge: ęcg, edge; sęcgan, to say; brycg, bridge. Initial h is sounded as in Modern English: habban, to have; hālga, saint. When closing a syllable it has the sound of German ch: slōh, he slew; hēah, high; ðurh, through.
An important distinction is that between voiced (orsonant) and voiceless (orsurd) consonants.2 In Old English they are as follows:
| Voiced. | Voiceless. |
|---|---|
| g | h, c |
| d | t |
| ð, þ (as in though) | ð, þ (asin thin) |
| b | p |
| f (= v) | f |
| s (= z) | s |
It is evident, therefore, that ð (þ), f, and s have double values in Old English. If voiced, they are equivalent to th (inthough), v, and z. Otherwise, they are pronounced as th (inthin), f (infin), and s (insin). The syllabic environment will usually compel the student to give these letters their proper values. When occurring between vowels, they are always voiced: ōðer, other; ofer, over; rīsan, to rise.
Note.—The general rule in Old English, as in Modern English, is, that voiced consonants have a special affinity for other voiced consonants, and voiceless for voiceless. This is the law of Assimilation. Thus when de is added to form the preterit of a verb whose stem ends in a voiceless consonant, the d is unvoiced, or assimilated, to t: sęttan, to set, sętte (but tręddan, to tread, has trędde); slǣpan, to sleep, slǣpte; dręncan, to drench, dręncte; cyssan, to kiss, cyste. See §126, Note1.
A syllable is usually a vowel, either alone or in combination with consonants, uttered with a single impulse of stress; but certain consonants may form syllables: oven (=ov-n), battle (=bæt-l); (cf. also the vulgar pronunciation of elm).
A syllable may be (1) weak or strong, (2) open or closed, (3) long or short.
(1) A weak syllable receives a light stress. Its vowel sound is often different from that of the corresponding strong, or stressed, syllable. Cf. weak and strong my in “Iwant my lárge hat” and “Iwant mý hat.”
(2) An open syllable ends in a vowel or diphthong: dē-man, to deem; ðū, thou; sca-can, to shake; dæ-ges, by day. A closed syllable ends in one or more consonants: ðing, thing; gōd, good; glæd, glad.
(3) A syllable is long (a) if it contains a long vowel or a long diphthong: drī-fan, to drive; lū-can, to lock; slǣ-pan, to sleep; cēo-san, to choose; (b) if its vowel or diphthong is followed by more than one consonant:3 cræft, strength; heard, hard; lib-ban, to live; feal-lan, to fall. Otherwise, the syllable is short: ðe, which; be-ran, to bear; ðæt, that; gie-fan, to give.
Note 1.—A single consonant belongs to the following syllable: hā-lig, holy (not hāl-ig); wrī-tan, to write; fæ-der, father.
Note 2.—The student will notice that the syllable may be long and the vowel short; but the vowel cannot be long and the syllable short.
Note 3.—Old English short vowels, occurring in open syllables, have regularly become long in Modern English: we-fan, to weave; e-tan, to eat; ma-cian, to make; na-cod, naked; a-can, to ache; o-fer, over. And Old English long vowels, preceding two or more consonants, have generally been shortened: brēost, breast; hǣlð, health; slǣpte, slept; lǣdde, led.
The accent in Old English falls usually on the radical syllable, never on the inflectional ending: bríngan, to bring; stā́nas, stones; bérende, bearing; ī́delnes, idleness; frḗondscipe, friendship.
But in the case of compound nouns, adjectives, and adverbs the first member of the compound (unless it be ge- or be-) receives the stronger stress: héofon-rīce, heaven-kingdom; ǫ́nd-giet, intelligence; sṓð-fæst, truthful; gód-cund, divine; éall-unga, entirely; blī́ðe-līce, blithely. But be-hā́t, promise; ge-béd, prayer; ge-fḗalīc, joyous; be-sǫ́ne, immediately.
Compound verbs, however, have the stress on the radical syllable: for-gíefan, to forgive; of-línnan, to cease; ā-cnā́wan, to know; wið-stǫ́ndan, to withstand; on-sácan, to resist.
Note.—The tendency of nouns to take the stress on the prefix, while verbs retain it on the root, is exemplified in many Modern English words: préference, prefér; cóntract (noun), contráct (verb); ábstinence, abstaín; pérfume (noun), perfúme (verb).
1. Vowels are said to be round, or rounded, when the lip-opening is rounded; that is, when the lips are thrust out and puckered as if preparing to pronounce w. Thus o and u are round vowels: add -ing to each, and phonetically you have added -wing. E.g. gowing, suwing.
2. A little practice will enable the student to see the appropriateness of calling these consonants voiced and voiceless. Try to pronounce a voiced consonant,—d in den, for example, but without the assistance of en,—and there will be heard a gurgle, or vocal murmur. But in t, of ten, there is no sound at all, but only a feeling of tension in the organs.
3. Taken separately, every syllable ending in a single consonant is long. It may be said, therefore, that all closed syllables are long; but in the natural flow of language, the single final consonant of a syllable so often blends with a following initial vowel, the syllable thus becoming open and short, that such syllables are not recognized as prevailingly long. Cf. Modern English at all (=a-tall).
There are five cases in Old English: the nominative, the genitive, the dative, the accusative, and the instrumental.1 Each of them, except the nominative, may be governed by prepositions. When used without prepositions, they have, in general, the following functions:
(a) The nominative, as in Modern English, is the case of the subject of a finite verb.
(b) The genitive (the possessive case of Modern English) is the case of the possessor or source. It may be called the of case.
(c) The dative is the case of the indirect object. It may be called the to or for case.
(d) The accusative (the objective case of Modern English) is the case of the direct object.
(e) The instrumental, which rarely differs from the dative in form, is the case of the means or the method. It may be called the with or by case.
The following paradigm of mūð, the mouth, illustrates the several cases (the article being, for the present, gratuitously added in the Modern English equivalents):
| Singular. | Plural. | |
|---|---|---|
| N. |
mūð = the mouth. |
mūð-as = the mouths. |
| G. |
mūð-es2 = of the mouth (= the mouth’s). |
mūð-a = of the mouths (= the mouths’). |
| D. |
mūð-e = to or for the mouth. |
mūð-um = to or for the mouths. |
| A. |
mūð = the mouth. |
mūð-as = the mouths. |
| I. |
mūðe = with or by means of the mouth. |
mūð-um = with or by means of the mouths. |
The gender of Old English nouns, unlike that of Modern English, depends partly on meaning and partly on form, or ending. Thus mūð, mouth, is masculine; tunge, tongue, feminine; ēage, eye, neuter.
No very comprehensive rules, therefore, can be given; but the gender of every noun should be learned with its meaning. Gender will be indicated in the vocabularies by the different gender forms of the definite article, sē for the masculine, sēo for the feminine, and ðæt for the neuter: sē mūð, sēo tunge, ðæt ēage = the mouth, the tongue, the eye.
All nouns ending in -dōm, -hād, -scipe, or -ere are masculine (cf. Modern English wisdom, childhood, friendship, worker). Masculine, also, are nouns ending in -a.
Those ending in -nes or -ung are feminine (cf. Modern English goodness, and gerundial forms in -ing: seeing is believing).
Thus sē wīsdōm, wisdom; sē cildhād, childhood; sē frēondscipe, friendship; sē fiscere, fisher(man); sē hunta, hunter; sēo gelīcnes, likeness; sēo leornung, learning.
There are two great systems of declension in Old English, the Vowel Declension and the Consonant Declension. Anoun is said to belong to the Vowel Declension when the final letter of its stem is a vowel, this vowel being then known as the stem-characteristic; but if the stem-characteristic is a consonant, the noun belongs to the Consonant Declension. There might have been, therefore, as many subdivisions of the Vowel Declension in Old English as there were vowels, and as many subdivisions of the Consonant Declension as there were consonants. All Old English nouns, however, belonging to the Vowel Declension, ended their stems originally in a, ō, i, or u. Hence there are but four subdivisions of the Vowel Declension: a-stems, ō-stems, i-stems, and u-stems.
The Vowel Declension is commonly called the Strong Declension, and its nouns Strong Nouns.
Note.—The terms Strong and Weak were first used by Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) in the terminology of verbs, and thence transferred to nouns and adjectives. By a Strong Verb, Grimm meant one that could form its preterit out of its own resources; that is, without calling in the aid of an additional syllable: Modern English run, ran; find, found; but verbs of the Weak Conjugation had to borrow, as it were, an inflectional syllable: gain, gained; help, helped.
The stems of nouns belonging to the Consonant Declension ended, with but few exceptions, in the letter n (cf. Latin homin-em, ration-em, Greek ποιμέν-α). They are called, therefore, n-stems, the Declension itself being known as the n-Declension, or the Weak Declension. The nouns, also, are called Weak Nouns.
If every Old English noun had preserved the original Germanic stem-characteristic (orfinal letter of the stem), there would be no difficulty in deciding at once whether any given noun is an a-stem, ō-stem, i-stem, u-stem, or n-stem; but these final letters had, for the most part, either been dropped, or fused with the case-endings, long before the period of historic Old English. It is only, therefore, by a rigid comparison of the Germanic languages with one another, and with the other Aryan languages, that scholars are able to reconstruct a single Germanic language, in which the original stem-characteristics may be seen far better than in any one historic branch of the Germanic group (§5, Note).
This hypothetical language, which bears the same ancestral relation to the historic Germanic dialects that Latin bears to the Romance tongues, is known simply as Germanic (Gmc.), or as Primitive Germanic. Ability to reconstruct Germanic forms is not expected of the students of this book, but the following table should be examined as illustrating the basis of distinction among the several Old English declensions (O.E. = Old English, Mn.E. = Modern English):
|
 |
Gmc. staina-z, | ||||||
| (1) a-stems | O.E. stān, | |||||||
| Mn.E. stone. | ||||||||
|
I. Strong |
|
Gmc. hallō, | ||||||
| (2) ō-stems | O.E. heall, | |||||||
| Mn.E. hall. | ||||||||
|
Gmc. bōni-z, | |||||||
| (3) i-stems | O.E. bēn, | |||||||
| Mn.E. boon. | ||||||||
|
Gmc. sunu-z, | |||||||
|
(4) u-stems | O.E. sunu, | ||||||
| Mn.E. son. | ||||||||
|
(1) n-stems (Weak Declension) |
|
Gmc. tungōn-iz, | |||||
| O.E. tung-an, | ||||||||
| Mn.E. tongue-s. | ||||||||
|
II. Consonant |
(2) Remnants of other Consonant Declensions |
|
|
Gmc. fōt-iz, | ||||
| (a) | O.E. fēt, | |||||||
| Mn.E. feet. | ||||||||
|
Gmc. frijōnd-iz, | |||||||
| (b) | O.E. frīend, | |||||||
| Mn.E. friend-s. | ||||||||
|
Gmc. brōðr-iz, | |||||||
|
|
(c) | O.E. brōðor, | |||||
| Mn.E. brother-s. | ||||||||
Note.—“It will be seen that if Old English ēage, eye, is said to be an n-stem, what is meant is this, that at some former period the kernel of the word ended in -n, while, as far as the Old English language proper is concerned, all that is implied is that the word is inflected in a certain manner.” (Jespersen, Progress in Language, §109).
This is true of all Old English stems, whether Vowel or Consonant. The division, therefore, into a-stems, ō-stems, etc., is made in the interests of grammar as well as of philology.
There are, likewise, two systems of conjugation in Old English: the Strong or Old Conjugation, and the Weak or New Conjugation.
The verbs of the Strong Conjugation (the so-called Irregular Verbs of Modern English) number about three hundred, of which not one hundred remain in Modern English (§101, Note). They form their preterit and frequently their past participle by changing the radical vowel of the present stem. This vowel change or modification is called ablaut (pronounced áhp-lowt): Modern English sing, sang, sung; rise, rose, risen. As the radical vowel of the preterit plural is often different from that of the preterit singular, there are four principal parts or tense stems in an Old English strong verb, instead of the three of Modern English. The four principal parts in the conjugation of a strong verb are (1)the present indicative, (2)the preterit indicative singular, (3)the preterit indicative plural, and (4)the past participle.
Strong verbs fall into seven groups, illustrated in the following table:
| Present. | Pret. Sing. | Pret. Plur. | Past Participle. |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | |||
| Bītan, to bite: | |||
|
Ic bīt-e, I bite or shall bite.3 |
Ic bāt, I bit. |
Wē bit-on, we bit. |
Ic hæbbe ge4-biten, I have bitten. |
| II. | |||
| Bēodan, to bid: | |||
|
Ic bēod-e, I bid or shall bid. |
Ic bēad, I bade. |
Wē bud-on, we bade. |
Ic hæbbe ge-boden, I have bidden. |
| III. | |||
| Bindan, to bind: | |||
|
Ic bind-e, I bind or shall bind. |
Ic bǫnd, I bound. |
Wē bund-on, we bound. |
Ic hæbbe ge-bund-en, I have bound. |
| IV. | |||
| Beran, to bear: | |||
|
Ic ber-e, I bear or shall bear. |
Ic bær, I bore. |
Wē bǣr-on, we bore. |
Ic hæbbe ge-bor-en, I have borne. |
| V. | |||
| Metan, to measure: | |||
|
Ic met-e, I measure or shall measure. |
Ic mæt, I measured. |
Wē mǣt-on, we measured. |
Ic hæbbe ge-met-en, I have measured. |
| VI. | |||
| Faran, to go: | |||
|
Ic far-e, I go or shall go. |
Ic fōr, I went. |
Wē fōr-on, we went. |
Ic eom5 ge-far-en, I have (am) gone. |
| VII. | |||
| Feallan, to fall: | |||
|
Ic feall-e, I fall or shall fall. |
Ic fēoll, I fell. |
Wē fēoll-on, we fell. |
Ic eom5 ge-feall-en, I have (am) fallen. |
The verbs of the Weak Conjugation (the so-called Regular Verbs of Modern English) form their preterit and past participle by adding to the present stem a suffix6 with d or t: Modern English love, loved; sleep, slept.
The stem of the preterit plural is never different from the stem of the preterit singular; hence these verbs have only three distinctive tense-stems, or principal parts: viz., (1)the present indicative, (2)the preterit indicative, and (3)the past participle.
Weak verbs fall into three groups, illustrated in the following table:
| Present. | Preterit. | Past Participle. |
|---|---|---|
| I. | ||
| Fręmman, to perform: | ||
|
Ic fręmm-e, I perform or shall perform. |
Ic fręm-ede, I performed. |
Ic hæbbe ge-fręm-ed, I have performed. |
| II. | ||
| Bodian, to proclaim: | ||
|
Ic bodi-e, I proclaim or shall proclaim. |
Ic bod-ode, I proclaimed. |
Ic hæbbe ge-bod-od, I have proclaimed. |
| III. | ||
| Habban, to have: | ||
|
Ic hæbbe, I have or shall have. |
Ic hæf-de, I had. |
Ic hæbbe ge-hæf-d, I have had. |
There remain a few verbs (chiefly the Auxiliary Verbs of Modern English) that do not belong entirely to either of the two conjugations mentioned. The most important of them are, Ic mæg I may, Ic mihte I might; Ic cǫn I can, Ic cūðe I could; Ic mōt I must, Ic mōste I must; Ic sceal I shall, Ic sceolde I should; Ic eom I am, Ic wæs I was; Ic wille I will, Ic wolde I would; Ic dō I do, Ic dyde I did; Ic gā I go, Ic ēode I went.
All but the last four of these are known as Preterit-Present Verbs. The present tense of each of them is in origin a preterit, in function a present. Cf. Modern English ought (=owed).