A short introduction to English grammar

by Robert Lowth

VERB.

A Verb is a word which signifies to be, to do, or to suffer.

There are three kinds of Verbs; Active, Passive, and Neuter Verbs.

A Verb Active expresses an Action, and necessarily implies an agent, and an object acted upon: as, to love; “I love Thomas.”

A Verb Passive expresses a Passion, or a Suffering, or the receiving of an Action; and necessarily implies an Object acted upon, and an Agent by which it is acted upon: as, to be loved; “Thomas is loved by me.”

So when the Agent takes the lead in the Sentence, the Verb is Active, and the Object follows: when the Object takes the lead, the Verb is Passive, and the Agent follows.

A Verb Neuter expresses Being, or a state or condition of being; when the Agent and the Object acted upon coincide, and the event is properly neither Action nor Passion, but rather something between both: as, I am; I walk; I sleep.

The Verb Active is called also Transitive, because the Action passeth over to the Object, or hath an effect upon some other thing: and the Verb Neuter is called Intransitive, because the effect is confined within the Agent, and doth not pass over to any object.

In English many Verbs are used both in an Active and a Neuter signification, the construction only determining of which kind they are.

In a Verb are to be considered the Person, the Number, the Time, and the Mode.

The Verb varies its endings to express, or agree with, the different Persons: as, “I love, Thou lovest, He loveth, or loves.”

So also to express the different Numbers of the same Person: as, “Thou lovest, ye love; He loveth, they love[18].”

So likewise to express different Times: as, “I love, I loved; I bear, I bore, I have born.”

The Mode is the Manner of representing the Action or Passion. When it is simply declared, or a question is asked concerning it, it is called the Indicative Mode; when it is bidden, it is called the Imperative; when it is subjoined as the end or design, or mentioned under a condition, a supposition, or the like, for the most part depending on some other Verb, and having a Conjunction before it, it is called the Subjunctive; when it is barely expressed without any limitation of person or number, it is called the Infinitive; and when it is expressed in a form in which it may be joined to a Noun as its quality or accident, partaking thereby of the nature of an Adjective, it is called the Participle.

But to express the Time of the Verb the English uses also the assistance of other Verbs, called therefore Auxiliaries, or Helpers; do, be, have, shall, will: as, “I do love, I did love; I am loved, I was loved; I have loved, I have been loved; I shall, or will, love, or be loved.”

The two principal auxiliaries, to have, and to be, are thus varied according to Person, Number, Time, and Mode.

Time is Present, Past, or Future.

To HAVE.

Indicative Mode.
Present Time.
Person.	Sing.			Plur.
1.	I have,			We	}	have.
2.	Thou hast[19],			Ye	}
3.	He hath, or has;			They	}
Past Time.
1.	I had,			We	}	had.
2.	Thou hadst,			Ye	}
3.	He had;			They	}
Future Time.
1.	I shall, or will,	}	have;	We	}	shall, or will, have.
2.	Thou shalt, or wilt,	}		Ye	}
3.	He shall, or will,	}		They	}
Imperative Mode.
1.				Let us have,
2.	Have thou, or, Do thou have,			Have ye, or, Do ye have,
3.	Let him have;			Let them have.
Subjunctive Mode.
Present Time.
1.	I	}	have;	We	}	have.
2.	Thou	}		Ye	}
3.	He	}		They	}
Infinitive Mode.
Present, To have: Past, To have had.
Participle.
Present, Having: Perfect[20], Had: Past, Having had.

To BE.

Indicative Mode.
Present Time.
1.	I am,			We	}	are.
2.	Thou art,			Ye	}
3.	He is;			They	}
Or,
1.	I be,			We	}	be.
2.	Thou beest,			Ye	}
3.	He is;			They	}
Past Time.
1.	I was,			We	}	were.
2.	Thou wast,			Ye	}
3.	He was;			They	}
Future Time.
1.	I shall, or will,	}	be;	We	}	shall, or will, be.
2.	Thou shalt, or wilt,	}		Ye	}
3.	He shall, or will,	}		They	}
Imperative Mode.
1.				Let us be,
2.	Be thou, or, Do thou be,			Be ye, or, Do ye be,
3.	Let him be;			Let them be.
Subjunctive Mode.
Present Time.
1.	I	}	be;	We	}	be.
2.	Thou	}		Ye	}
3.	He	}		They	}
Past Time.
1.	I	were,		We	}	were.
2.	Thou	wert[21],		Ye	}
3.	He	were;		They	}
Infinitive Mode.
Present, To be: Past, To have been.
Participle.
Present, Being: Perfect, Been: Past, Having been.

The Verb Active is thus varied according to Person, Number, Time and Mode.

Indicative Mode.
Present Time.
Person.	Sing.			Plur.
1.	I love,			We	}	love.
2.	Thou lovest,			Ye	}
3.	He loveth, or loves;			They	}
Past Time.
1.	I loved,			We	}	loved.
2.	Thou lovedst,			Ye	}
3.	He loved;			They	}
Future Time.
1.	I shall, or will,	}	love;	We	}	shall, or will, love.
2.	Thou shalt, or wilt,	}		Ye	}
3.	He shall, or will,	}		They	}
Imperative Mode.
1.				Let us love,
2.	Love thou, or, Do thou love,			Love ye, or, Do ye love,
3.	Let him love;			Let them love.
Subjunctive Mode.
Present Time.
1.	I	}	love;	We	}	love.
2.	Thou	}		Ye	}
3.	He	}		They	}
And,
1.	I may	}	love;	We	}	may love; and have loved[22].
2.	Thou mayst	}		Ye	}
3.	He may	}		They	}
Past Time.
1.	I might	}	love;	We	}	might love; and have loved[22].
2.	Thou mightest	}		Ye	}
3.	He might	}		They	}
And,
I could, should, would; Thou couldst, &c. love; and have loved.
Infinitive Mode.
Present, To love: Past, To have loved.
Participle.
Present, Loving: Perfect, Loved: Past, Having loved.

But in discourse we have often occasion to speak of Time not only as Present, Past, and Future, at large and indeterminately, but also as such with some particular distinction and limitation; that is, as passing, or finished; as imperfect, or perfect. This will best be seen in an example of a Verb laid out and distributed according to these distinctions of Time.

Indefinite, or Undetermined, Time:

Present,	Past,	Future,
I love;	I loved;	I shall love.

Definite, or Determined, Time:

Present Imperfect:	I am (now) loving.
Present Perfect:	I have (now) loved.
Past Imperfect:	I was (then) loving.
Past Perfect:	I had (then) loved.
Future Imperf.	I shall (then) be loving.
Future Perf.	I shall (then) have loved.

To express the Present and Past Imperfect of the Active and Neuter Verb the Auxiliary do is sometimes used: I do (now) love; I did (then) love.

Thus with very little variation of the Principal Verb the several circumstances of Mode and Time are clearly expressed by the help of the Auxiliaries, be, have, do, let, may, can, shall, will.

The peculiar force of the several Auxiliaries is to be observed. Do and did mark the Action itself, or the Time of it[23], with greater force and distinction. They are also of frequent and almost necessary use in Interrogative and Negative Sentences. Let does not only express permission; but praying, exhorting, commanding. May and might express the possibility or liberty of doing a thing; can and could, the power. Must is sometimes called in for a helper, and denotes necessity. Would expresses the intention of the doer; should simply the event. Will in the first Person singular and plural promises or threatens; in the second and third Persons only foretells: shall on the contrary, in the first Person simply foretells; in the second and third Persons commands or threatens[24].

Do and have make the Present Time; did, had, the Past; shall, will, the Future: let the Imperative Mode; may, might, could, would, should, the Subjunctive. The Preposition to placed before the Verb makes the Infinitive Mode. Have, through its several Modes and Times, is placed only before the Perfect Participle; and be, in like manner, before the Present and Passive Participles: the rest only before the Verb itself in its Primary Form[25].

The Passive Verb is only the Participle Passive, (which for the most part is the same with the Indefinite Past Time Active, and always the same with the Perfect Participle) joined to the Auxiliary Verb to be through all its Variations: as, I am loved; I was loved; I have been loved; I shall be loved: and so on through all the Persons, Numbers, Times, and Modes.

The Neuter Verb is varied like the Active; but, having somewhat of the Nature of the Passive, admits in many instances of the Passive form, retaining still the Neuter signification; chiefly in such Verbs as signify some sort of motion, or change of place or condition: as, I am come; I was gone; I am grown; I was fallen[26]. The Verb am in this case precisely defines the Time of the action or event, but does not change the nature of it; the Passive form still expressing, not properly a Passion, but only a state or condition of Being.

IRREGULAR VERBS.

In English both the Past Time Active and the Participle Perfect, or Passive, are formed by adding to the Verb ed; or d only when the Verb ends in e: as, turn, turned; love, loved. The Verbs that vary from this rule, in either or in both cases, are esteemed Irregular.

The nature of our language, the Accent and Pronunciation of it, inclines us to contract even all our Regular Verbs: thus loved, turned, are commonly pronounced in one syllable, lov’d, turn’d; and the second Person which was originally in three syllables, lovedest, turnedest, is become a dissyllable, lovedst, turnedst: for as we generally throw the accent as far back as possible towards the first part of the word, (in some even to the fourth syllable from the end,) the stress being laid on the first syllables, the rest are pronounced in a lower tone, more rapidly and indistinctly; and so are often either wholly dropt, or blended into one another.

It sometimes happens also, that the word which arises from a regular change does not sound easily or agreeably; sometimes by the rapidity of our pronunciation the vowels are shortened or lost; and the consonants which are thrown together do not easily coalesce with one another, and are therefore changed into others of the same organ, or of a kindred species: this occasions a further deviation from the regular form: thus, loveth, turneth, are contracted into lov’th, turn’th, and these for easier pronunciation immediately become loves, turns.

Verbs ending in ch, ck, p, x, ll, ss, in the Past Time Active and the Participle Perfect or Passive admit the change of ed into t; as, snatcht, checkt, snapt, mixt, dropping also one of the double letters, dwelt, past; for snatched, checked, snapped, mixed, dwelled, passed: those that end in l, m, n, p, after a diphthong, moreover shorten the diphthong, or change it into a single short vowel; as, dealt, dreamt, meant, felt, slept, &c: all for the same reason; from the quickness of the pronunciation, and because the d after a short vowel will not easily coalesce with the preceding consonant. Those that end in ve change also v into f; as, bereave, bereft; leave, left; because likewise v after a short vowel will not easily coalesce with t.

All these, of which we have hitherto given examples, are considered not as Irregular, but as Contracted only; and in all of them the Intire as well as the Contracted form is used.

The formation of Verbs in English, both Regular and Irregular, is derived from the Saxon.

The Irregular Verbs in English are all Monosyllables, unless Compounded; and they are for the most part the same words which are Irregular Verbs in the Saxon.

As all our Regular Verbs are subject to some kind of Contraction, so the first Class of Irregulars is of those that become so from the same cause.

I.
Irregulars by Contraction.

Some Verbs ending in d or t have the Present, the Past Time, and the Participle Perfect and Passive, all alike, without any variation: as, Beat, burst[27], cast, cost, cut, hit, hurt, knit, let, lift[28], put, read[29], rent, rid, set, shed, shred, shut, slit, spread, thrust, wet[28].

These are Contractions from beated, bursted, casted, &c; because of the disagreeable sound of the syllable ed after d or t[30].

Others in the Past Time, and Participle Perfect and Passive, vary a little from the Present by shortening the diphthong, or changing the d into t: as, Lead, led; sweat, swet; meet, met; bleed, bled; breed, bred; feed, fed; speed, sped; bend, bent[28]; lend, lent; rend, rent; send, sent; spend, spent; build, built[28]; geld, gelt[28]; gild, gilt[28]; gird, girt[28].

Others not ending in d or t are formed by Contraction; have, had, for haved; make, made, for maked; flee, fled, for flee-ed.

The following beside the Contraction change also the Vowel; Sell, sold; tell, told; clothe, clad[28].

Stand, stood; and dare, durst, (which in the Participle hath regularly dared;) are directly from the Saxon, standan, stod; dyrran, dorste.

II.
Irregulars in ght.

The Irregulars of the Second Class end in ght, both in the Past Time and Participle; and change the vowel or diphthong into au or ou: they are taken from the Saxon, in which the termination is hte.

		Saxon.
Bring,	brought:	Bringan,	brohte.
Buy,	bought:	Bycgean,	bohte.
Catch,	caught:
Fight,	fought:	Feotan,	fuht.
Teach,	taught:	Tæchan,	tæhte.
Think,	thought:	Thencan,	thohte.
Seek,	sought:	Secan,	sohte.
Work,	wrought:	Weorcan,	worhte.

Fraught seems rather to be an Adjective than the Participle of the Verb to freight, which has regularly freighted. Raught from reach is obsolete.

III.
Irregulars in en.

The Irregulars of the Third Class form the Past Time by changing the vowel or diphthong of the Present; and the Participle Perfect and Passive by adding the termination en, beside, for the most part, the change of the vowel or diphthong. These also derive their formation in both parts from the Saxon.

Present.	Past.	Participle.
a changed into e.
Fall,	fell,	fallen.
a into o.
Awake,	awoke,	[awaked.]
a into oo.
Forsake,	forsook,	forsaken.
Shake,	shook,	shaken.
Take,	took,	taken.
aw into ew.
Draw,	drew,	drawn[31].
ay into ew.
Slay,	slew,	slayn[31].
e into a or o, o.
Get,	gat, or got,	gotten.
Help,	[helped,]	holpen.
Melt,	[melted,]	molten[28].
Swell,	[swelled,]	swollen[28].
ea into a or o.
Eat,	ate,	eaten.
Bear,	bare, or bore,	born.
Break,	brake, or broke,	broken.
Cleave,	clave, or clove[28],	cloven[28].
Speak,	spake, or spoke,	spoken.
Swear,	sware, or swore,	sworn.
Tear,	tare, or tore,	torn.
Wear,	ware, or wore,	worn.
Heave,	hove[28],	hoven.
Shear,	shore,	shorn.
Steal,	stole,	stolen, or stoln.
Tread,	trode,	trodden.
Weave,	wove,	woven.
ee into o, o.
Creep,	crope,	[creeped, or crept.]
Freeze,	froze,	frozen.
Seethe,	sod,	sodden.
ee into aw.
See,	saw,	seen.
i long into i short, i short.
Bite,	bit,	bitten.
Chide,	chid,	chidden.
Hide,	hid,	hidden.
Slide,	slid,	slidden.
i long into o, i short.
Abide,	abode.
Drive,	drove,	driven.
Ride,	rode,	ridden.
Rise,	rose,	risen.
Shine,	shone,	[shined.]
Shrive,	shrove,	shriven.
Smite,	smote,	smitten.
Stride,	strode,	stridden.
Strive,	strove[28],	striven[28].
Thrive,	throve,	thriven.
Write[32],	wrote,	written.
i long into u, i short.
Strike,	struck,	stricken, or strucken.
i short into a.
Bid,	bade,	bidden.
Give,	gave,	given.
Sit[33],	sat,	sitten.
Spit,	spat,	spitten.
i short into u.
Dig,	dug[28],	[digged.]
ie into ay.
Lie[34],	lay,	lien, or lain.
o into e.
Hold,	held,	holden.
o into i.
Do,	did,	done, i. e. doen.
oo into o, o.
Choose,	chose,	chosen[35].
ow into ew.
Blow,	blew,	blown.
Crow,	crew,	[crowed.]
Grow,	grew,	grown.
Know,	knew,	known.
Throw,	threw,	thrown.
y into ew, ow.
Fly[36],	flew,	flown.

The following are Irregular only in the Participle; and that without changing the vowel.

Bake,	[baked,]	baken[28].
Grave,	[graved,]	graven[28].
Hew,	[hewed,]	hewen, or hewn[28].
Lade,	[laded,]	laden.
Load,	[loaded,]	loaden[28].
Mow,	[mowed,]	mown[28].
Rive,	[rived,]	riven.
Saw,	[sawed,]	sawn[28].
Shave,	[shaved,]	shaven[28].
Shew,	[shewed,]	shewn[28].
Sow,	[sowed,]	sown[28].
Straw, -ew, or -ow, [strawed, &c.]	strown[28].
Wax,	[waxed,]	waxen[28].

Some Verbs which change i short into a or u, and i long into ou, have dropt the termination en in the Participle.

i short into a or u, u.
Begin,	began,	begun.
Cling,	clang, or clung,	clung.
Drink,	drank,	drunk, or drunken.
Fling,	flung,	flung.
Ring,	rang, or rung,	rung.
Shrink,	shrank, or shrunk,	shrunk.
Sing,	sang, or sung,	sung.
Sink,	sank, or sunk,	sunk.
Sling,	slang, or slung,	slung.
Slink,	slunk,	slunk.
Spin,	span, or spun,	spun.
Spring,	sprang, or sprung,	sprung.
Sting,	stung,	stung.
Stink,	stank, or stunk,	stunk.
String,	strung,	strung.
Swim,	swam, or swum,	swum.
Swing,	swung,	swung.
Wring,	wrung,	wrung.

In many of the foregoing the original and analogical form of the Past Time in a, which distinguished it from the Participle, is grown quite obsolete.

i long into ou, ou.
Bind,	bound,	bound, or bounden.
Find,	found,	found.
Grind,	ground,	ground.
Wind,	wound,	wound.

That all these had originally the termination en in the Participle, is plain from the following considerations. Drink and bind still retain it; drunken, bounden; from the Saxon, druncen, bunden: and the rest are manifestly of the same analogy with these. Begonnen, sonken, and founden, are used by Chaucer; and some others of them appear in their proper shape in the Saxon; scruncen, spunnen, sprungen, stungen, wunden. As likewise in the German, which is only another off-spring of the Saxon: begunnen, geklungen, getruncken, gesungen, gesuncken, gespunnen, gesprungen, gestuncken, geschwummen, geschwungen.

The following seem to have lost the en of the Participle in the same manner:

Hang,	hung,	hung.
Shoot,	shot,	shot.
Stick,	stuck,	stuck.
Come,	came,	come.
Run,	ran,	run.
Win,	won,	won.

Hangen, and scoten, are the Saxon originals of the two first Participles; the latter of which is likewise still in use in its first form in one phrase; a shotten herring. Stuck seems to be a contraction from stucken, as struck now in use for strucken. Chaucer hath comen and wonnen: becommen is even used by Lord Bacon[37]. And most of them still subsist intire in the German; gehangen, kommen, gerunnen, gewonnen.

To this third Class belong the Defective Verbs, Be, been; and Go, gone; i. e. goen.

From this Distribution and account of the Irregular Verbs, if it be just, it appears, that originally there was no exception whatever from the Rule, That the Participle Præterit, or Passive, in English ends in d, t, or n. The first form included all the Regular Verbs, and those which are become Irregular by Contraction ending in t. To the second properly belonged only those which end in ght, from the Saxon Irregulars in hte. To the third, those from the Saxon Irregulars in en, which have still, or had originally, the same termination.

The same Rule affords a proper foundation for a division of the English Verbs into Three Conjugations, of which the three different Terminations of the Participle might respectively be the Characteristics. The Contracted Verbs, whose Participles now end in t, might perhaps be best reduced to the first Conjugation, to which they naturally and originally belonged; and they seem to be of a very different analogy from those in ght. But as the Verbs of the first Conjugation would so greatly exceed in number those of both the others, which together make but about 110[38]; and as those of the third Conjugation are so various in their form, and so incapable of being reduced to one plain Rule; it seems better in practice to consider the first in ed as the only Regular form, and the others as deviations from it; after the example of the Saxon and German Grammarians.

To the Irregular Verbs are to be added the Defective; which are not only for the most part Irregular, but are also wanting in some of their parts. They are in general words of most frequent and vulgar use; in which Custom is apt to get the better of Analogy. Such are the Auxiliary Verbs, most of which are of this number. They are in use only in some of their Times, and Modes; and some of them are a Composition of Times of several Defective Verbs having the same signification.

Present.	Past.	Participle.
Am, or Be,	was,	been.
Can,	could.
Go,	went,	gone.
May,	might.
Must.
Ought,	ought.
Quoth,	quoth.
Shall,	should.
Weet, wit, or wot;	wot.
Will,	would.
Wist,	wist.

There are not in English so many as a Hundred Verbs, (being only the chief part, but not all, of the Irregulars of the Third Class,) which have a distinct and different form for the Past Time Active and the Participle Perfect or Passive. The General bent and turn of the language is towards the other form, which makes the Past Time and the Participle the same. This general inclination and tendency of the language, seems to have given occasion to the introducing of a very great Corruption; by which the Form of the Past Time is confounded with that of the Participle in these Verbs, few in proportion, which have them quite different from one another. This confusion prevails greatly in common discourse, and is too much authorised by the example of some of our best Writers[39]. Thus it is said, He begun, for he began; he run, for he ran; he drunk, for he drank: the Participle being used instead of the Past Time. And much more frequently the Past Time instead of the Participle: as, I had wrote, it was wrote, for I had written, it was written; I have drank, for I have drunk; bore, for born; chose, for chosen; bid, for bidden; got, for gotten; &c. This abuse has been long growing upon us, and is continually making further incroachments: as it may be observed in the example of those Irregular Verbs of the Third Class, which change i short into a and u; as, Cling, clang, clung; in which the original and analogical form of the Past Time in a is almost grown obsolete; and, the u prevailing instead of it, the Past Time is now in most of them confounded with the Participle. The Vulgar Translation of the Bible, which is the best standard of our language, is free from this corruption, except in a few instances; as, hid is used for hidden; held, for holden, frequently: bid, for bidden; begot, for begotten, once or twice: in which, and a few other like words, it may perhaps be allowed as a Contraction. And in some of these Custom has established it beyond recovery. In the rest it seems wholly inexcusable. The absurdity of it will be plainly perceived in the example of some of these Verbs, which Custom has not yet so perverted. We should be immediately shocked at I have knew, I have saw, I have gave, &c: but our ears are grown familiar with I have wrote, I have drank, I have bore, &c. which are altogether as barbarous.