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As well as developing the strong verb system, Germanic also went on to develop two other classes of verbs: the weak verbs and a third, much smaller, class known as the preterite-present verbs, which are continued in the English auxiliary verbs, e.g. can/could, shall/should, may/might, must. Weak verbs originally derived from other types of word ...
Strong verbs use the Germanic form of conjugation known as ablaut. In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to indicate the tense. Verbs like this persist in modern English; for example sing, sang, sung is a strong verb, as is swim, swam, swum and choose, chose, chosen. The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending.
An example verb *nemaną "to take" is shown here to illustrate the inflection of strong verbs. Other strong verbs were inflected analogously, but with different vowels in the root and/or reduplication of the initial consonant(s). The j-present verbs were inflected like weak class 1 verbs in the present tense, but dropped the j-suffix in the ...
weak verb seem þȳ þæt demonstrative pronoun it, that þȳstro þēostru feminine noun darkness wæs wesan irregular verb be wera wer masculine strong noun man wihte wihte adverb at all word word neuter strong noun word, utterance wordum word neuter strong noun word, utterance wrǣtlicu wrǣtlic adjective wondrous, strange; artistic, ornamental
The Germanic strong preterite shows the expected Germanic development of short o to short a in the singular and zero grade in the plural; these make up the second and third principal parts of the strong verb. The Indo-European perfect originally carried its own set of personal endings, the remnants of which are seen in the Germanic strong ...
Strong verbs use a Germanic form of conjugation known as ablaut. They form the past tense by changing their stem vowel. These verbs still exist in modern English; sing, sang, sung is a strong verb, as are swim, swam, swum and break, broke, broken. In modern English, strong verbs are rare, and they are mostly categorised as irregular verbs.
German verbs may be classified as either weak, with a dental consonant inflection, or strong, showing a vowel gradation ().Both of these are regular systems. Most verbs of both types are regular, though various subgroups and anomalies do arise; however, textbooks for learners often class all strong verbs as irregular.
Strong, class 3: saw – sawed – sawed/sawn: Weak: Sawn by analogy with strong verbs [6] say (says /sɛz/) – said – said missay – missaid – missaid soothsay – soothsaid – soothsaid: Weak: With vowel shortening in said /sɛd/ and in the third person present says /sɛz/ see – saw – seen foresee – foresaw – foreseen missee ...