The Old English Verb

OE verbs have two tenses (present and past) and three moods (indicative, subjunctive and imperative). There are also the verbals – the infinitive, the first (present) and the second (past) participles. The verbs agree with the subject in person and number.

Germanic is distinguished among the branches of the Indo-European family by several unique features which were developed by internal progress of the Common Germanic language. One of such features was the formation of the weak verbs, which did not exist in the Proto-Indo-European language.

Modern English makes a distinction between regular and irregular verbs. This distinction goes back to the Old English system of strong and weak verbs. 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 are swim/swam/swum and choose/chose/chosen. The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending. In Old English, there were seven major classes of strong verb; each class has its own pattern of stem changes.

OE strong verbs are traditionally divided into seven classes, each having a distinct pattern of the root vowels in its principal parts, different from any other class. There were four basic forms of strong verbs in OE: the Infinitive, the Past singular, the Past plural, Participle II.

INFINITIVE	PAST SINGULAR	PAST PLURAL	SECOND PARTICIPLE
Class I
­ī	ā	i	i
wrītan (write)	wrāt	writon	writen
Class II
ēo	ēa	u	o
bēodan (offer)	bēad	budon	boden
Class III
(a) before nasal + consonant
i	a (o)	u	u
drincan (drink)	dranc	druncon	druncen
(b) before l + consonant
helpan (help)	healp	hulpon	holpen
(c) before r + consonant, h + consonant
eo	ea	u	o
steorfan (die)	stearf	sturfon	storfen
Class IV
e	æ	ǣ	o
stelan (steal)	stæl	stǣlon	stolen
Class V
e	æ	ǣ	e
tredan (tread)	træd	trǣdon	treden
Class VI
a	ō	ō	a
faran (go)	fōr	fōron	faren
Class VII
feallan (fall)	feioll	feollon	feallen

The classes had the following distinguishing features to their infinitive stems:

1. ī + one consonant.

2. ēo or ū + one consonant.

3. Originally e + two consonants (This was no longer the case by the time of written Old English).

4. e + one consonant (usually l or r, plus the verb brecan 'to break').

5. e + one consonant (usually a stop or a fricative).

6. a + one consonant.

7. No specific rule – first and second have identical stems (ē or ēo), and the infinitive and the past participle also have the same stem.

Weak verbs are formed principally by adding dental endings (containing –d- or –t-) to past and participles. Ever weak verb is characterized by three forms: infinitive, past tense and second participle. There are three major classes of weak verbs.

The first class displays i-mutation in the root. It also includes several subdivisions.

Class I Weak Verbs

Infinitive	Past	Second Participle
cēpan (keep)	cēpte	cēpt, cēped
tellan (tell)	tealde	teald

Class II verbs did not undergo any mutation, as the replacement of the original suffix *-ōja- was reduced to –i- at the time when the process of mutation was over. The infinitive of these verbs ends in –ian.

Class II Weak Verbs

Infinitive	Past	Second Participle
macian (make)	macode	macod
hopian (hope)	hopode	hopod

During the Old English period the third class was significantly reduced; only few verbs belonged to this group. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though share some commonalities.

Class III Weak Verbs

Infinitive	Past	Second Participle
habban (have)	hæfde	hæfd
libban (live)	lifde	lifd

Conjugation

Class I strong verb wrītan (write)

Present							Past
		Indicative		Subjunctive	Imperative		Indicative	Subjunctive
Sing.	1pers.	wrīte		wrīte	—		wrāt	write
	2 pers.	wrītest, wrītst			wrīt		wrīte
	3 pers.	wrīteÞ, wrīt		—		wrāt
Plur.		wrītaÞ		wrīten	2d pers. – wrītaÞ		wrīton	writen
Infinitive			First Participle			Second Participle
wrītan			wrītende			(ge)writen
Dat. tō wrītenne

Every infinitive can have a dative case used with the preposition tō.

Class I weak verb styrian (stir)

Present					Past
		Indicative	Subjunctive	Imperative	Indicative	Subjunctive
Sing.	1pers.	styrie	styrie	—	styrede	styrede
	2 pers.	styrest,		styre	styredest
	3 pers.	styrieÞ	—	styrede
Plur.		styriaÞ	styrien	2d pers. – styriaÞ	styredon	styreden

Infinitive	First Participle	Second Participle
styrian	styriende	(ge) styred

Preterite-present verbs

The preterite-present verbs are a class of verbs which form the present like the past of a strong verb, and the past like the past of a weak verb. These verbs derive from perfect tense verbs that have accuired a present meaning. For example, witan, "to know" comes from verb which originally meant "to have seen." As a result of this history, the present singular is formed from the first preterite stem, and the present plural from the second preterite stem.

Infinitive		cunnan (can)	sculan (shall, should)
Present tense Indicative
Sing.	1st pers.	cann	sceal
	2d pers.	canst	scealt
3rd pers.	cann	sceal(l)
Plural		cunnon	sculon
Subjunctive
Sing.		cunne	scule, scyle
Plural		cunnen	sculen, scyle
Past Tense
Indicative
Sing.	1st pers.	cūðe	sceolde
	2d pers.	cūðest	sceoldest
3rd pers.	cūðe	sceolde
Plural		cūðon	sceoldon
Subjunctive
Sing.		cūðe	sceolde
Plural		cūðen	sceolden
Participle II		cunnen, cūð	—