Strong verbs

They formed their stems by means of vowel gradation and by adding certain inflections and suffixes. There were 4 basic forms (stems) of the strong verbs, and the use of the stems was as follows:

I – in the infinitive, the present indicative and subjunctive, the imperative mood and participle I;

II – in the past tense singular, the 1-st and the 3-rd person;

III – in the past tense plural, 2-nd person singular and Past Subjunctive;

IV – in the form of the participle two.

There were about three hundred strong verbs in Old English. They are divided into seven classes.

In Germanic languages the classes of the strong verbs had the following vowels in four basic forms:

Old English gradation seems somewhat different. It is natural development of the former Germanic system, but spontaneous and assimilative vowel changes transformed it into the following:

Class I

Gradation formula ī – ā – i – i

wrītain –wrāt – writon – writen (to write)

rīsan – rās – rison – risen (rise)

Other verbs of this class are: drīfan (to drive), bītan (to bite), strīdan (to stride), scīnan (to shine) etc.

As the 3-rd and the 4-th forms had stress on the final syllable, if the verbs had voiceless fricatives in the second syllable, these turned into voiced stops:

lī ðan – lā ð – lidon – liden (to go)

snī ðan – snā ð – snidon – sniden (to cut)

Class II

Gradation formula ēo – ēa – u – o

The four basic forms of this class are:

bēodan – bēad – budon – boden (to offer)

clēofan – clēaf – clufon – clofen (to cleave)

Other verbs of his class are: cēosan (to choose), scēonan (to shoot), drēosan (to fall), frēosan (to freeze) etc.

The verbs which have s after root vowel had the change of it into r:

cēosan – cēas – curon – coren

Some class II verbs have the vowel ū instead of the usual ēo:

lūcan – lēac- lucon – locen (to lock)

They are: brūcan (to need), dūfan (to dive), slūpan (to slip), sūpan (to try).

Class III

In this class of the strong verbs a short vowel was followed by two consonants. There are several variations of root vowels in this class of verbs:

1. If nasal sound + another consonant followed the root vowel the graduation formula was: i – a(o) – u – u

drincan – dranc – druncon – druncen (to drinc)

Other verbs are: findan (to find), windan (to wind), winnan (to work), swimman (to swim) etc.

b) If l + another consonant followed the root vowel the formula was: i/e – ea – u – o

helpan – healp – hulpon – holpen (to help)

The other verbs: sweltan (to die), bellan (to bark), melcan (to milk) etc.

c) If + consonant or h + consonant followed the root vowels then braking in the first two forms change the formula into

eo – ea – u – o

steorfan – stearf – sturfon – storfen (to die)

weorðan – wearð – wurdon – worden (to become)

Here also belong ceorfan (to carve), beorcan (to bark), hweorpan (to turn) etc.

Other variations:

The verbs beginning with palatal z had ie in the first form as a result of diphthongization of eo after palatal consonants:

ie – ea – u – o

zieldan – zeald – zuldon – zolden (to pay)

There are also some phonetic anomalies belonging to this class:

friznan – fræzn – fruznon (frunon) –frunzen (to ask)

iernan – orn – urnon – urnen (to run)

biernan – born – burnon – burnen (to burn)

Class IV

The verb of this class have only one consonant after the short root vowel, and it is a sonorant – r or l, in rare cases – m or n. The scheme of gradation is e – æ - ǣ̄ - o

stelan – stæl - stǣlon – stolen (to steal)

Also beran (to bear), cwelan (to die), helan (to conceal).

Though different from the others in phonetic form but still belonging to this class are two very frequently used with a nasal sound after the root vowel:

niman – nam (nom) – namon (nomon) – numen (to take)

cuman – cwom (com) – comon (cwomon) –cumen (to come)

Class V

This verbs also have a short root vowel followed by only one consonant r, l or n. The basic vowels are: e – æ - ǣ - e

sprecan – spræc – sprǣcon – sprecen (to speak)

Also metan (to measure), etan (to eat), wesan (to be)

When the first sound was z, then diphthongization of e is observed and the form of such verbs are:

ziefan – zeaf – zēāfon – ziefen (to give)

zietan – zeat – zēāton – zieten (to get)