2. Strong verbs form the past tense by changing the vowel of the present, without the addition of an ending.
Examples:
- drink, drank;
- begin, began;
- come, came;
- rise, rose;
- bind, bound;
- cling, clung;
- stick, stuck;
- wear, wore.[29]
Weak verbs are sometimes called regular, and strong verbs irregular verbs.
For a list of the strong verbs see [pp. 291–297].
Note. The terms strong and weak were first applied to verbs for a somewhat fanciful reason. The strong verbs were so called because they seemed to form the past tense out of their own resources, without calling to their assistance any ending. The weak verbs were so called because they could not form the past tense without the aid of the ending ed, d, or t.
220. The ending that is written ed is fully pronounced only when d or t precedes (as,—thread, threaded; attract, attracted). Otherwise, e is silent, so that the ending becomes, in pronunciation, d or t (as,—entered, pronounced enter’d; rocked, pronounced rockt).
In poetry and the solemn style, however, the silent e in the ending ed is sometimes restored to its ancient rights.
221. Many weak verbs show special irregularities in the past tense.
1. Make has made in the past, and have has had.