Remarks on Certain Verb Forms.

246. Several of the perfect participles are seldom used except as adjectives: as, "his bounden duty," "the cloven hoof," "a drunken wretch," "a sunken snag." Stricken is used mostly of diseases; as, "stricken with paralysis."

The verb bear (to bring forth) is peculiar in having one participle (borne) for the active, and another (born) for the passive. When it means to carry or to endure, borne is also a passive.

The form clomb is not used in prose, but is much used in vulgar English, and sometimes occurs in poetry; as,—

Thou hast clomb aloft.—Wordsworth

Or pine grove whither woodman never clomb.—Coleridge

The forms of cleave are really a mixture of two verbs,—one meaning to adhere or cling; the other, to split. The former used to be cleave, cleaved, cleaved; and the latter, cleave, clave or clove, cloven. But the latter took on the weak form cleft in the past tense and past participle,—as (from Shakespeare), "O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain,"—while cleave (to cling) sometimes has clove, as (from Holmes), "The old Latin tutor clove to Virgilius Maro." In this confusion of usage, only one set remains certain,—cleave, cleft, cleft (to split).

Crew is seldom found in present-day English.

Not a cock crew, nor a dog barked.—Irving.

Our cock, which always crew at eleven, now told us it was time for repose.—Goldsmith.

Historically, drunk is the one correct past participle of the verb drink. But drunk is very much used as an adjective, instead of drunken (meaning intoxicated); and, probably to avoid confusion with this, drank is a good deal used as a past participle: thus,—

We had each drank three times at the well.—B. Taylor.

This liquor was generally drank by Wood and Billings. —Thackeray.

Sometimes in literary English, especially in that of an earlier period, it is found that the verb eat has the past tense and past participle eat (ĕt), instead of ate and eaten; as, for example,—

It ate the food it ne'er had eat.—Coleridge.

How fairy Mab the junkets eat.—Milton.

The island princes overbold
Have eat our substance.
—Tennyson.

This is also very much used in spoken and vulgar English.

The form gotten is little used, got being the preferred form of past participle as well as past tense. One example out of many is,—

We had all got safe on shore.—De Foe.

Hung and hanged both are used as the past tense and past participle of hang; but hanged is the preferred form when we speak of execution by hanging; as,

The butler was hanged.—Bible.

The verb sat is sometimes spelled sate; for example,—

Might we have sate and talked where gowans blow.—Wordsworth.

He sate him down, and seized a pen.—Byron.

"But I sate still and finished my plaiting."—Kingsley.

Usually shear is a weak verb. Shorn and shore are not commonly used: indeed, shore is rare, even in poetry.

This heard Geraint, and grasping at his sword,
Shore thro' the swarthy neck.
—Tennyson.

Shorn is used sometimes as a participial adjective, as "a shorn lamb," but not much as a participle. We usually say, "The sheep were sheared" instead of "The sheep were shorn."

Went is borrowed as the past tense of go from the old verb wend, which is seldom used except in poetry; for example,—

If, maiden, thou would'st wend with me
To leave both tower and town.
—Scott.

Exercises.

(a) From the table (Sec. 245), make out lists of verbs having the same vowel changes as each of the following:—

1. Fall, fell, fallen.
2. Begin, began, begun.
3. Find, found, found.
4. Give, gave, given.
5. Drive, drove, driven.
6. Throw, threw, thrown.
7. Fling, flung, flung.
8. Break, broke, broken.
9. Shake, shook, shaken.
10. Freeze, froze, frozen.

(b) Find sentences using ten past-tense forms of strong verbs.

[To the Teacher,—These exercises should be continued for several lessons, for full drill on the forms.]