The irregularities occur in the present indicative and subjunctive:
| Indicative. | |||||||||
| Present. | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sing. 1. | Ic wāt | āh | cǫn (can) | dear | sceal | mæg | mōt | ||
| 2. | ðū wāst | āhst | cǫnst (canst) | dearst | scealt | meaht | mōst | ||
| 3. | hē wāt | āh | cǫn (can) | dear | sceal | mæg | mōt | ||
| Plur. 1. | wē |  | witon | ||||||
| 2. | gē | āgon | cunnon | durron | sculon | magon | mōton | ||
| 3. | hīe | ||||||||
| Subjunctive. | |||||||||
| Present. | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sing. 1. | Ic | | wite | ||||||
| 2. | ðū | āge | cunne | durre | scule (scyle) | mæge | mōte | ||
| 3. | hē | ||||||||
| Plur. 1. | wē | | witen | ||||||
| 2. | gē | āgen | cunnen | durren | sculen (scylen) | mægen | mōten | ||
| 3. | hīe | ||||||||
Note 1.—Willan and sculan do not often connote simple futurity in Early West Saxon, yet they were fast drifting that way. The Mn.E. use of shall only with the 1st person and will only with the 2d and 3d, to express simple futurity, was wholly unknown even in Shakespeare’s day. The elaborate distinctions drawn between these words by modern grammarians are not only cumbersome and foreign to the genius of English, but equally lacking in psychological basis.
Note 2.—Sculan originally implied the idea of (1) duty, or compulsion (= ought to, or must), and this conception lurks with more or less prominence in almost every function of sculan in O.E.: Dryhten bebēad Moyse hū hē sceolde beran ðā earce, The Lord instructed Moses how he ought to bear the ark; Ǣlc mann sceal be his andgietes mǣðe ... sprecan ðæt he spricð, and dōn ðæt ðæt hē dēð, Every man must, according to the measure of his intelligence, speak what he speaks, and do what he does. Its next most frequent use is to express (2) custom, the transition from the obligatory to the customary being an easy one: Sē byrdesta sceall gyldan fīftȳne mearðes fell, The man of highest rank pays fifteen marten skins.
Note 3.—Willan expressed originally (1) pure volition, and this is its most frequent use in O.E. It may occur without the infinitive: Nylle ic ðæs synfullan dēað, ac ic wille ðæt hē gecyrre and lybbe, I do not desire the sinner’s death, but I desire that he return and live. The wish being father to the intention, willan soon came to express (2) purpose: Hē sǣde ðæt hē at sumum cirre wolde fandian hū longe ðæt land norðryhte lǣge, He said that he intended, at some time, to investigate how far that land extended northward.
Verb-Phrases with habban, bēon (wesan), and weorðan.
Verb-Phrases in the Active Voice.
[138.]
The present and preterit of habban, combined with a past participle, are used in O.E., as in Mn.E., to form the present perfect and past perfect tenses: