(i) The only tense in our language that is formed by inflexion is the past indefinite. All the others are formed by the aid of auxiliaries.

(a) The imperfect tenses are formed by be the imperfect participle.

(b) The perfect tenses are formed by have + the perfect participle.

(ii) Besides had written, have written, and will have written, we can say had been writing, have been writing, and will have been writing. These are sometimes called Past Perfect (or Pluperfect) Continuous, Perfect Continuous, and Future Perfect Continuous.

(iii) "I do write," "I did write," are called Emphatic forms.

NUMBER.

21. Verbs are modified for Number.

There are in verbs

two numbers: (i) the Singular and (ii) the Plural.

(i) We say, "He writes" (with the ending s).

(ii) We say, “They write" (with no inflectional ending at all).

PERSON.

22. Verbs are modified for Person—that is, the form of the verb is changed to suit (i) the first person, (ii) the second person, or (iii) the third person.

(i) "I write." (ii) "Thou writest." (iii) "He writes."

CONJUGATION.

23. Conjugation is the name given to the sum-total of all the inflexions and combinations of the parts of a verb.

The word conjugate comes from the Lat. conjugare, to bind together.

24. There are two conjugations in English-the Strong and the Weak. Hence we have: (i) verbs of the Strong Conjugation, and (ii) verbs of the Weak Conjugation, which are more usually called Strong Verbs and Weak Verbs. These verbs are distinguished from each other by their way of forming their past tenses.

25. The past tense of any verb determines to which of these classes it belongs; and that by a twofold test-one positive and one negative.

26. (i) The positive test for the past of a Strong Verb is that it changes the vowel of the present. (ii) The negative test is that it never adds anything to the present to make its past tense.

(i) Thus we say write, wrote, and change the vowel.

(ii) But in wrote there is nothing added to write.

27. (i) The positive test for the past tense of a Weak Verb is that d or t is added to the present. (ii) The negative test is that the root-vowel of the present is generally not changed.

(i) There are some exceptions to this latter statement. Thus tell, told; buy, bought; sell, sold, are weak verbs. The change in the vowel does not spring from the same cause as the change in strong verbs. Hence

(ii) It is as well to keep entirely to the positive test in the case of weak verbs. However "strong" or "irregular" may seem to be the verbs teach, taught; seek, sought; say, said, we know that they are weak, because they add a d or a t for the past tense.

(iii) In many weak verbs there seems to be both a change of vowel and also an absence of any addition. Hence they look very like strong verbs. In fact, the long vowel of the present is made short in the past. Thus we find meet, met; feed, fed. But these verbs are not strong. The old past was mette and feddë; and all that has happened is that they have lost the old inflexions te and de. It was owing to the addition of another syllable that the original long vowel of the verb was shortened. Compare nation, national; vain, vanity.

(iv) The past or passive participle of strong verbs had the suffix en and the prefix ge. The suffix has now disappeared from many strong verbs, and the prefix from all. But ge, which in Chaucer's time had been refined into a y (as in ycomen, yronnen), is retained still in that form in the one word yclept. Milton's use of it in star-y-pointing is a mistake.

28. The following is an

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF STRONG VERBS.

(All strong verbs except those which have a prefix are monosyllabic.) The forms in italics are weak.

It is well for the young learner to examine the above verbs closely, and to make a classification of them for his own use. The following are a few suggestions towards this task :

(i) Collect verbs with vowels a, e, a; like fall, fell, fallen.

(ii) Verbs with o, e, o; (iii) Verbs with 1, a, u; (iv) Verbs with i, u, u;

like throw, threw, thrown.
like begin, began, begun,
like fling, flung, flung.

(v) Verbs with i, ou, ou; like find, found, found.

(vi) Verbs with ea, o, o; like break, broke, broken.

(vii) Verbs with 1, a, i; like give, gave, given.

(viii) Verbs with a, o or oo, a; like shake, shook, shaken.

(ix) Verbs with 1 (long), 0, 1 (short); like drive, drove, driven.

(x) Verbs with ee or oo, o, o; like freeze, froze, frozen; or choose, chose, chosen.

29. Weak Verbs are of two kinds: (i) Irregular Weak; and (ii) Regular Weak. The Irregular Weak are such verbs as tell, told; buy, bought. The Regular Weak are such verbs as attend, attended; obey, obeyed.

(i) The Irregular Weak verbs are, with very few exceptions, monosyllables, and are almost all of purely English origin.

(ii) The Regular Weak verbs are entirely of Latin or of French origin. Since the language lost the power of changing the root-vowel of a verb, every verb received into our tongue from another language has been placed in the Regular Weak conjugation.

1 The past tenses of dig and stick were formerly weak; so were the pas sive participles of hide, rot, show, strew, saw.

(iii) The ed or d is a shortened form of did. Thus, I loved is = I love did.

30. Irregular Weak verbs are themselves divided into two classes: (i) those which keep their ed, d, or t in the past tense; (ii) those which have lost the d or t. Thus we find (i) sleep, slept; teach, taught. Among (ii) we find feed, fed, which was once fed-dë; set, set, which was once set-të.

It is of the greatest importance to attend to the following changes :

(i) A sharp consonant follows a sharp, and a flat a flat. Thus p in sleep is sharp, and therefore we cannot say sleeped. We must take the sharp form of d, which is t, and say slept. So also felt, burnt, dreamt, etc.

(ii) Some verbs shorten their vowel. Thus we have hear, heard; flee, fled; sleep, slept, etc.

(iii) Some verbs have different vowels in the present and past: as tell, told; buy, bought; teach, taught; work, wrought. But it is not the past tense, it is the present that has changed. Thus the o in told represents the a in tale, talk, etc.

(iv) Some have dropped an internal letter. Thus made is=maked; paid=payed; had=haved.

(v) Some verbs change the d of the present into a t in the past. Thus we have build, built; send, sent.

(vi) A large class have the three parts-present, past, and passive participle exactly alike. Such are rid, set, etc.