CHAPTER XXIV.
THE WEAK TENSES.
[§ 304]. The præterite tense of the weak verbs is formed by the addition of -d or -t.
If necessary, the syllable -ed is substituted for -d.
The current statement that the syllable -ed, rather than the letter -d is the sign of the præterite tense, is true only in regard to the written language. In stabbed, moved, bragged, whizzed, judged, filled, slurred, slammed, shunned, barred, strewed, the e is a point of spelling only. In language, except in declamation, there is no second vowel sound. The -d comes in immediate contact with the final letter of the original word, and the number of syllables remains the same as it was before. We say stabd, môved, bragd, &c.
[§ 305]. When, however, the original word ends in -d or -t, as slight or brand, then, and then only is there the real addition of the syllable -ed; as in slighted, branded.
This is necessary, since the combinations slightt and brandd are unpronounceable.
Whether the addition be -d or -t depends upon the flatness or sharpness of the preceding letter.
After b, v, th (as in clothe), g, or z, the addition is -d. This is a matter of necessity. We say stabd, môvd, clôthd, braggd, whizzd, because stabt, môvt, clotht, braggt, whizzt, are unpronounceable.
After l, m, n, r, w, y, or a vowel, the addition is also
-d. This is the habit of the English language. Filt, slurt, strayt, &c., are as pronounceable as filld, slurrd, strayd, &c. It is the habit, however, of the English language to prefer the latter forms.
All this, as the reader has probably observed, is merely the reasoning concerning the s, in words like father's, &c., applied to another letter and to another part of speech.
[§ 306]. The verbs of the weak conjugation fall into three classes.
I. In the first there is the simple addition of -d, -t, or -ed.
| Serve, served. | Dip, dipped (dipt). |
| Cry, cried. | Slip, slipped (slipt). |
| Betray, betrayed. | Step, stepped (stept). |
| Expell, expelled. | Look, looked (lookt). |
| Accuse, accused. | Pluck, plucked (pluckt). |
| Instruct, instructed. | Toss, tossed (tost). |
| Invite, invited. | Push, pushed (pusht). |
| Waste, wasted. | Confess, confessed (confest). |
To this class belong the greater part of the weak verbs and all verbs of foreign origin.
[§ 307]. II. In the second class, besides the addition of -t or -d, the vowel is shortened,
| Present. | Præterite. |
| Creep | Crept. |
| Keep | Kept. |
| Sleep | Slept. |
| Sweep | Swept. |
| Weep | Wept. |
| Lose | Lost. |
| Mean | Meant.[[57]] |
Here the final consonant is -t.
| Present. | Præterite. |
| Flee | Fled. |
| Hear | Heard.[[58]] |
| Shoe | Shod. |
| Say | Said.[[59]] |
Here the final consonant is -d.
[§ 308]. III. In the second class the vowel of the present tense was shortened in the præterite. In the third class it is changed.
| Tell, told. | Sell, sold. |
| Will, would. | Shall, should. |
To this class belong the remarkable præterites of the verbs seek, beseech, catch, teach, bring, think, and buy, viz., sought, besought, caught, taught, brought, thought, and bought. In all these, the final consonant is either g or k, or else a sound allied to those mutes. When the tendency of these sounds to become h and y, as well as to undergo farther changes, is remembered, the forms in point cease to seem anomalous. In wrought, from work, there is a transposition. In laid and said the present forms make a show of regularity which they have not. The true original forms should be legde and sægde, the infinitives being lecgan, secgan. In these words the i represents the semivowel y, into which the original g was changed. The Anglo-Saxon forms of the other words are as follows:—
| Bycan, bóhte. | Bringan, bróhte. |
| Sêcan, sóhte. | Þencan, þóhte. |
| Wyrcan, wórhte. | |
[§ 309]. Out of the three classes into which the weak verbs in Anglo-Saxon are divided, only one takes a vowel before the d or t. The other two add the syllables -te or -de, to the last letter of the original word. The vowel that, in one out of the three Anglo-Saxon classes, precedes d is o. Thus we have lufian, lufode; clypian, clypode. In the other two classes the forms are respectively bærnan, bærnde; and tellan, tealde, no vowel being found. The participle, however, as stated above, ended, not in -de or -te, but in -d or -t; and in two out of the three classes it was preceded by a vowel; the vowel being e,—gelufod, bærned, geteald. Now in those conjugations where no vowel preceded the d of the præterite, and where the original word ended in -d or -t, a difficulty, which has already been indicated, arose. To add the sign of the præterite to a word like eard-ian (to dwell) was an easy matter, inasmuch as eardian was a word belonging to the first class, and in the first class the præterite was formed in -ode. Here the vowel o kept the two d's from coming in contact. With words, however, like métan and sendan, this was not the case. Here no vowel intervened; so that the natural præterite forms were met-te, send-de, combinations wherein one of the letters ran every chance of being dropped in the pronunciation. Hence, with the exception of the verbs in the first class, words ending in -d or -t in the root admitted no additional d or t in the præterite. This difficulty, existing in the present English as it existed in the Anglo-Saxon, modifies the præterites of most words ending in -t or -d.
[§ 310]. In several words there is the actual addition of the syllable -ed; in other words d is separated from the last letter of the original word by the addition of a vowel; as ended, instructed, &c.
[§ 311]. In several words the final -d is changed into -t,
as bend, bent; rend, rent; send, sent; gild, gilt; build, built; spend, spent, &c.
[§ 312]. In several words the vowel of the root is changed; as feed, fed; bleed, bled; breed, bred; meet, met; speed, sped; rēad, rĕad, &c. Words of this last-named class cause occasional difficulty to the grammarian. No addition is made to the root, and, in this circumstance, they agree with the strong verbs. Moreover, there is a change of the vowel. In this circumstance also they agree with the strong verbs. Hence with forms like fed and led we are in doubt as to the conjugation. This doubt we have three means of settling, as may be shown by the word beat.
a. By the form of the participle.—The -en in beaten shows that the word beat is strong.
b. By the nature of the vowel.—The weak form of to beat would be bet, or beăt, after the analogy of feed and read. By some persons the word is pronounced bet, and with those who do so the word is weak.
c. By a knowledge of the older forms.—The Anglo-Saxon form is beáte, beot. There is no such a weak form as beáte, bætte. The præterite of sendan is sende weak. There is in Anglo-Saxon no such form as sand, strong.
In all this we see a series of expedients for distinguishing the præterite form from the present, when the root ends with the same sound with which the affix begins.
The change from a long vowel to a short one, as in feed, fed, &c., can only take place where there is a long vowel to be changed.
Where the vowels are short, and, at the same time, the word ends in -d, the -d of the present may become -t in the præterite. Such is the case with bend, bent.
When there is no long vowel to shorten, and no -d
to change into -t, the two tenses, of necessity, remain alike; such is the case with cut, cost, &c.
[§ 313]. The following verbs form their præterite in -t:—
| Present. | Præterite. | ||
| Leave | Left[[60]] | not | Leaved.[[61]] |
| Cleave | Cleft | — | Cleaved. |
| Bereave | Bereft | — | Bereaved. |
| Deal | Dealt[[62]] | — | Dealed. |
| Feel | Felt | — | Feeled. |
| Dream | Dremt[[60]] | — | Dreamed. |
| Learn | Lernt[[60]] | — | Learned. |
[§ 314]. Certain so-called irregularities may now be noticed.—Made, had.—In these words there is nothing remarkable but the ejection of a consonant. The Anglo-Saxon forms are macode and hæfde, respectively. The words, however, in regard to the amount of change, are not upon a par. The f in hæfde was probably sounded as v. Now v is a letter excessively liable to be ejected, which k is not. K, before it is ejected, is generally changed into either g or y.
Would, should, could.—It must not be imagined that could is in the same predicament with these words. In will and shall the -l is part of the original word. This is not the case with can. For the form could, see § [331].
[§ 315]. Aught.—In Anglo-Saxon áhte, the præterite of the present form áh, plural ágon.—As late as the time of Elizabeth we find owe used for own. The present form own seems to have arisen from the plural ágon. Aught is the præterite of the Anglo-Saxon áh; owed of the English owe = debeo; owned of the English own =
possideo. The word own, in the expression to own to a thing, has a totally different origin. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon an (plural, unnon) = I give, or grant = concedo.
[§ 316]. Durst.—The verb dare is both transitive and intransitive. We can say either I dare do such a thing, or I dare (challenge) such a man to do it. This, in the present tense, is unequivocally correct. In the past the double power of the word dare is ambiguous; still it is, to my mind at least, allowable. We can certainly say I dared him to accept my challenge; and we can, perhaps, say I dared venture on the expedition. In this last sentence, however, durst is the preferable expression.
Now, although dare is both transitive and intransitive, durst is only intransitive. It never agrees with the Latin word provoco; only with the Latin word audeo. Moreover, the word durst has both a present and a past sense. The difficulty which it presents consists in the presence of the -st, letters characteristic of the second person singular, but here found in all the persons alike; as I durst, they durst, &c.
This has still to be satisfactorily accounted for.
Must.—A form common to all persons, numbers, and tenses. That neither the -s nor the -t are part of the original root, is indicated by the Scandinavian form maae (Danish), pronounced moh; præterite maatt.
This form has still to be satisfactorily accounted for.
Wist.—In its present form a regular præterite from wiss = know. The difficulties of this word arise from the parallel forms wit (as in to wit), and wot = knew. The following are the forms of this peculiar word:—
In Mœso-Gothic, 1 sing. pres. ind. váit; 2. do.,
váist; 1 pl. vitum; præterite 1 s. vissa; 2 vissêss; 1 pl. vissêdum. From the form váist we see that the second singular is formed after the manner of must; that is, váist stands instead of váit-t. From the form vissêdum we see that the præterite is not strong, but weak; therefore that vissa is euphonic for vista.
In Anglo-Saxon.—Wât, wást, witon, wiste, and wisse, wiston.—Hence the double forms, wiste, and wisse, verify the statement concerning the Mœso-Gothic vissa.
In Icelandic.—Veit, veizt, vitum, vissi. Danish ved, vide, vidste. Observe the form vidste; since, in it, the d of the root (in spelling, at least) is preserved. The t of the Anglo-Saxon wiste is the t, not of the root, but of the inflection.
In respect to the four forms in question, viz., wit, wot, wiss, wisst, the first seems to be the root; the second a strong præterite regularly formed, but used (like οἶδα in Greek) with a present sense; the third a weak præterite, of which the -t has been ejected by a euphonic process, used also with a present sense; the fourth is a second singular from wiss after the manner of wert from were, a second singular from wit after the manner of must, a secondary præterite from wiss, or finally, the form wisse, anterior to the operation of the euphonic process that ejected the -t.
[§ 317]. In the phrase this will do = this will answer the purpose, the word do is wholly different from the word do, meaning to act. In the first case it is equivalent to the Latin valere; in the second to the Latin facere. Of the first the Anglo-Saxon inflection is deáh, dugon, dohte, dohtest, &c. Of the second it is dó, doð, dyde, &c. I doubt whether the præterite did, as equivalent to valebat = was good for, is correct. In the phrase it did for him = it finished him, either meaning may be allowed.
In the present Danish they write duger, but say duer: as duger et noget? = Is it worth anything? pronounced dooer deh note? This accounts for the ejection of the g. The Anglo-Saxon form deáh does the same.
[§ 318]. Mind—mind and do so and so.—In this sentence the word mind is wholly different from the noun mind. The Anglo-Saxon forms are geman, gemanst, gemunon, without the -d; this letter occurring only in the præterite tense (gemunde, gemundon), of which it is the sign. Mind is, then, a præterite form with a present sense; whilst minded (as in he minded his business) is an instance of excess of inflection; in other words, it is a præterite formed from a præterite.
[§ 319]. Yode.—The obsolete præterite of go, now replaced by went, the præterite of wend. Regular, except that the initial g has become y.
Did, from do = facio, is a strong verb. This we infer from the form of its participle done.
If so the final -d is not the same as the -d in moved. What is it? There are good grounds for believing that in the word did we have a single instance of the old reduplicate præterite. If so, it is the latter d which is radical, and the former which is inflectional.