Lecture 7.

The verbal system in Old English

Questions:
How many types of verbs do you know ? regular and irregular
to drink - infinitive
drank - past form
drunk - past participle
drinking - past participle
How many irregular verbs are there in present-day English? almost 2 hundred
What are the verbal categories ? How do you analyse a verb in a sentence?
John drinks milk - 3rd person, singular, present tense, active voice, inidicative
verbal categories = person, number, tense, aspect (simple or perfect) voice, mood
How many tenses are there in English? 3 basic tenses (present, past, future)+aspect 12

Verbs in Old English could be used in:

- 2 simple tenses (marked by special endings/ inflections), present and past tense.
- 3 moods (the indicative, the subjunctive and the imperative)

7.1. Verb classes

In Germanic languages verbs are grouped into 2 great classes, the weak and the strong, also
known in Modern English as regular and irregular verbs.

ModE. sing – sang – sung

walk – walked – walked

Verbs like sing, sang, sung, are called irregular verb or strong verbs because they indicate
change of tense by a modification of their root vowel. These verbs, generally speaking, have
different vowels in the infinitive, the past and the past participle form.

Verbs, such as walk, walked, walked, are known as regular or weak. The change of tense is
marked by the addition of -ed, pronounced as a ‘dental’ consonant /t/, /d/, /id/ (talked, played,
visited)

7.1.1. Strong verbs

In Old English there were only a few over …….. irregular verbs.
The forms of the strong verbs:

infinitive past sg. (1+3) past 2sg. pl. past participle

drīfan (drive) drāf drifon gedrifen
drinkan (drink) dranc druncon gedruncen
helpan (help) healp hulpon geholpen
sprecan (speak) spræc spræcon gesprecen
faran (fare, go) fōr fōron gefaren
feallan (fall) fēōll fēōllon gefeallen
ridan (ride) rad ridon geriden
bindan (bind) band bundon gebunden
cnawan (know) cneow cneowon gecnawen

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Old English strong verbs have 4 forms:
- the infinitive,
- the past (for the 1rst and 3rd person)
- the past for the secon person and for all persons in the plural
- the past participle

In Old English the past form of the verbs has one vowel in the first and third person singular
while the second person singular and all persons of the plural have another vowel.

The personal pronoun in the nominative case:

ic I wē we
ðū you gē ‘you’
hē ‘ne’ hīe ‘they’
hēo ‘she’
hit ‘it’

The complete conjugation of a typical strong verb, bindan ‘bind’ is given below:

Present
Indicative 1 sg. ic binde
2 sg. þu bindest
3 sg. he/ heo/ hit bindeþ es s/es
1-3 pl.we/ ge/ hi bindaþ
Subjunctive 1-3 sg. ic/ þu/ etc. binde
1-3 pl. we/ ge/ hi binden
Imperative sg. bind
pl. bindaþ
Participle bindende

Past
Indicative 1-3 sg ic/ he etc. band
2 sg þu bunde
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hie bundon
Subjunctive 1-3 sg ic/ þu/ he bunde
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hi bunden
Participle gebunden
Infinitive bindan - bind
Inflected infinitive to bindenne - to binding (a diverbal
noun)
The only inflection/ending preserved from the conjugation of strong verbs is eþ,
which was attached to verbs in the 3rd person, singular, indicative, present tense.

7.1.2. Weak verbs

fremman ‘perform’ – fremede – gefremed;

lufian ‘love’ – lufode – gelufod;
libban ‘live’ – lifde – gelifd

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Weak verbs in Old English form their past tense by adding -ede, -ode, or -de to the present
stem, and their past participle by adding -ed, -od, or -d and the prefix ge.
The personal endings except in the past singular are similar to those of the ………… verbs.

Weak verbs class I class II

Infinitive fremman ‘to perform’ lufian ‘to love’

Present
Indicative 1 sg. ic fremme lufie
2 sg. þu fremest lufast
3 sg. he/ heo/ hit fremeþ lufaþ
1-3 pl.we/ ge/ hie fremmaþ

lufiaþ
Subjunctive 1-3 sg ic/ þu/ etc. fremme lufie
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hie fremmen lufien
Imperative sg fremme lufa
pl fremmaþ lufiaþ
Participle fremmende lufiende - loving

Past
Indicative 1-3 sg ic/ he etc. fremede lufode
2 sg þu fremedest lufodest
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hi fremedon lufodon
Subjunctive 1-3 sg ic/ þu/ he fremede lufode
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hi fremeden lufoden
Participle gefremed gelufod
Infinitive fremman lufian
Inflected infinitive to fremmenne to lufienne

Like lufian ‘love’ are: andswarian ‘answer’, āscian ‘ask’, blissian ‘rejoice’, endian ‘end’,
leornian ‘learn’, macian ‘make’, etc.

It is important to note, however, that the weak or regular conjugation has come to be the
dominant one in the English language. Many strong verbs have passed over to this
conjugation, and practically all new verbs added to the English language are inflected in
accordance with it.

7.1.3. The conjugation of BE

Here is the conjugations of the verb wesan/ bēon ‘be’:

Present
Indicative 1 sg. ic eom bēo
2 sg. þu eart bist
3 sg. he/ heo/ hit is biþ
1-3 pl. we/ ge/ hi sind/ sindon bēoþ
Subjunctive 1-3 sg. ic/ þu/ etc. sie bēo
1-3 pl. we/ ge/ hi sien bēon
Imperative sg. wes bēo
pl. wesaþ bēoþ

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 Participle wesende

Past
Indicative 1-3 sg. ic/ he etc. wæs
2 sg. þu wære
1-3 pl. we/ ge/ hi wæron
Subjunctive 1-3 sg. ic/ þu/ he wære
1-3 pl. we/ ge/ hi wæren
Infinitive wesan bēon
is, we und were survived in CE.
7.1.4. OE verbs that became modal verbs in Middle English
Verbs like sceal ‘shall’, willan ‘will’, maeg ‘may’, cunn ‘can’, mōt ‘must’, were used as
lexical verbs in Old English. They started to be used as modal verbs (followed by an
infinitive) in the Middle English period.
The paradigm of cunnan is the following:

Indicative Present Past

1, 3 sg. can(n) cūðe
2 sg. canst cūðest
1- 3 pl. cunnoncūðon
Subjunctive sg. and pl. cunne(n) cūðe(n)
Participle cunnen

The modals, however, do not have a participial form and their infinitival form occurs very
rarely.

The verbal endings (inflections) started to be gradually reduced towards the end of the OE
period. Further reduction took place during the Middle English period. The only verbal
endings that have survived in Modern English are:
……………………………………………..

Exercise:
1. The following verbs are given in their infinitive and preterite singular form. Decide
which of them are weak verbs and which are strong:

OE - ModE

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s s brengan – brōhte ‘to bring’
s s gifan – geaf ‘to give’
w w hyngran – hyngrede ‘to hunger’
w s hyran – hyrde ‘to hear’
w s habban – hæfde ‘to have’
w w lōcian – lōcode ‘to look’
s s scīnan – scān ‘to shine’
s w steppan – stōp ‘to step’
s s tæcen – tāhte ‘to teach’

The verbal endings (inflections) started to be gradually reduced towards the end of the OE period
(the country was envaded by Vikings, which spoke a very similar language). Further reduction of
endings took place during the Middle English period.

The only verbal endings that have survived are

- s for the 3rd person, sg, present tense - from the strong conjugation

- ed for regular verbs in the past, from the weak conjugation;

- and ing for the