-er in the comparative.
-est in the superlative and the 2nd person pres.
-eth (-ith) in the 3rd person pres. sing., in the plur. pres. and plur. imperative.
-ed (-id, -ud) in the past participles of weak verbs, and often in the 1st and 3rd person sing. and the whole plur. pret. of the weak verbs with short root-syllable, instead of the fuller endings -ede, -eden, which also occur; in weak verbs with long root-syllable the endings are -de, -den.
-edest, or -dest in the 2nd pers. sing. pret. of the weak verb.
-e in a certain number of inflexional forms of the verb (as e.g. in the inf. and in the past part. of strong verbs, where n is dropped), and of the substantive and adjective, and as an ending of Romanic words, &c.
Of all these endings only the comparative and superlative suffixes -er, -est are preserved in an unreduced state in Modern English. The final -e has disappeared in pronunciation (with some exceptions occurring in Early Modern English). The important suffixes -en, -es, -ed, -est (2nd pers. sing.), -eth (for which -s, the northern ending, instead of -es, is commonly substituted) have been contracted through syncope so as to form one syllable with the root, except where the nature of the final consonant of the stem prevents syncope, e.g. in -es and -est after sibilants, in -ed after dentals, in -en after v, s, t, d, k (as in houses, ended, risen, written, hidden, broken, driven). As, however, these are always full syllables they may here be disregarded. The ending -edest has been shortened into -edst.
It is to be observed that the syncopation of the vowel (e) of the inflexional endings was not so nearly universal in Early Modern English as it is at present; and further, that it is still much less prevalent in poetry than in prose, because the poets for metrical reasons often preserve the fuller endings when in ordinary speech they are no longer used.[133] In examining the metrical treatment of the Early English inflexional endings, we shall therefore have occasion to consider the usage of the present day, notwithstanding the fact that some of these endings are obsolete in modern prose.
The chief difference between Early and Modern English with regard to the treatment of the inflexions is that in Early English poetry the full pronunciation is the rule—in accordance with the practice in ordinary speech--and the syncopation of the vowel (e, rarely i or u) is the exception; while in Modern English it is the shortened pronunciation that is normal, the full syllabic form being used only exceptionally as a poetic licence.