Quoth, “said,” is an old strong past tense. The compound bequeath has bequeathed only.
Miscellaneous archaisms are the past tenses sate for sat, trode for trod, spat for spit; also writ for wrote and written, rid for rode and ridden, strewed and strown for strewn.
II
The following verbs vary between ed and t (d) in the past tense and the past participle. In some of them, this variation is a mere difference of spelling. In writing, the ed forms are preferred in most cases; in speaking, the t forms are very common.
| bless | blessed, blest[65] |
| burn | burned, burnt[66] |
| curse | cursed, curst[65] |
| dare | dared (less commonly, durst) |
| dream | dreamed, dreamt |
| dress | dressed, drest |
| gird | girded, girt[66] |
| kneel | kneeled, knelt[66] |
| knit | knit, knitted[66] |
| learn | learned, learnt[67] |
| pen (shut up) | penned, pent[66] |
| quit | quitted, quit[66] |
| shred | shredded, shred[66] |
| smell | smelled, smelt[66] |
| speed | sped, speeded[66] |
| spell | spelled, spelt |
| spill | spilled, spilt[66] |
| spoil | spoiled, spoilt[66] |
| stay | stayed, staid |
| sweat | sweated, sweat[66] |
| wed | wedded (p.p. also wed)[66] |
III
The following verbs have regular ed forms in modern prose, but in poetry and the high style sometimes show archaic forms.
| Present Tense | Past Tense | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| crow | crowed, crew | crowed, crown |
| freight | freighted | freighted, fraught (figurative) |
| grave | graved | graved, graven |
| engrave | engraved | engraved, engraven |
| mow | mowed | mowed, mown |
| sew | sewed | sewed, sewn |
| shape | shaped | shaped, shapen |
| shear | sheared, shore | sheared, shorn |
| wax (grow) | waxed | waxed, waxen |
IV
The present tense of may, can, shall, is an old strong past. Hence the first and third persons singular are alike:—I may, he may. The actual past tenses of these verbs are weak forms:—might, could, should. Must is the weak past tense of an obsolete mōt, and is almost always used as a present tense ([§ 292]).