The old combinations enct, engd, became M.E. eynt, eynd. Hence we have blenche, pt. bleynte; drenche, pt. dreynte; quenche, pt. queynte; also the pp. forms y-meynd, seynd, y-spreynd, as if from the infin. menge, senge, sprenge.
3. Infin. tell-en, tell-e; Pt. s. tol-de; Pp. tol-d.
Here tol-de is for an O. Mercian tal-de (A.S. teal-de), from a stem TAL. The infin. shews mutation. The chief key to verbs of this class is to remember that the pt. t. depends upon the original form of the stem, whilst the infin. exhibits mutation; i.e. the pt. t. stem is more original than the present. An old ct becomes ht in A.S., and ght in M.E.
Here belong: leye, also leggen, to lay, pt. layde, leyde; recche, to reck, pt. roghte, roughte; seye, pt. seide, saide; sēke, pt. soghte, soughte; selle, pt. solde; strecche, pt. straughte. Also bye, Kentish begge (in the comp. abegge), to buy, pt. boghte, boughte; werche, to work, pt. wroghte, wroughte (by metathesis for worghte). In a few words a radical n has disappeared before h (M.E. gh) in the past tense: as in bringe, pt. broghte, broughte; thinke, to seem, pt. thoughte (thuuhtə); thenke, to think, pt. thoghte, thoughte (thaohtə, thòuhtə).
Rēche, to reach, tēche, to teach, properly belong to conj. 2; but their past tenses became raughte, taughte, so that they seem to belong here.
The preceding examples give most of the more important weak verbs; others can be found in the Glossary.
Verbs of French origin seldom take -ede in the pt. t., as in the case of aqueyntede; the usual suffix is -ed or -de, or both; as crye, to cry, pt. cry-ed, cry-de; espye, pt. espy-ed, espy-de.
The pp. results from the pt. t. by omitting final -e; if the pt. t. ends in -ed, the pp. coincides with it.
Note. Some verbs have both strong and weak forms; thus abreyde has the str. pt. t. abrayd, and the weak pt. t. abrayde. More striking examples occur in crēpe, to creep, pt. creep, crepte, pp. cropen; slēpe, to sleep, pt. t. sleep and slepte; wepe, to weep, pt. t. weep and wepte. Drede, rede, once strong verbs, are weak in Chaucer; pt. t. dredde, dradde, redde, radde. Cleve, to cleave, has the weak pt. t. clefte, and the strong pp. cloven. Broided is a curious substitution for broiden, the true pp. of breyde (A.S. bregdan). Werien, to wear, is a weak verb of the 1st class; hence the true pt. t. is werede, wered, as in Chaucer. The mod. E. wore is a new formation.