VII class

VI class

V class

IV class

III class

II class

I class

wrīten – wrōt – wrīten - wrīten

chēsen – chēs – chōsen - chōsen

drinken – drank - dronken - dronken

bēren – bar - bar – bōren

gēten – gat – gat - gēten

shāken – shōk – shōken - shāken

fallen – fell – fellen - fallen

In ME some strong verbs tended to build their forms on the analogy with the weak ones (e.g. to sleep).

The process of reducing the 4 main forms to 3, which began in ME, reached its climax in ENE. In the 15-16^th centuries the distinctions of number in the Past Tense of strong verbs disappeared, and 3 main forms were fixed: Infinitive, Past, Participle II.

A large number of former strong verbs (about 90) passed over onto the class of weak verbs (e.g. to help).

2) Weak verbs. In ME the differences between the 3 classes of weak verbs tended to disappear. This tendency, which started already in OE, became vivid through the following changes in the forms of weak verbs:

a) in the 14^th century the unvoicing of the dental suffix – d (into –t) from the verbs like kepte, melte spread over to verbs whose stems ended in -nd, -ld, -rd, -l, -m, -n, -v, etc.

b) the stem-suffix -o- of the 2^nd class was reduced to -e- (e.g. OE lufian-luf o de-luf o d > ME loven-lov e de-lov e d).

c) the infinitive of classes 1 and 2 lost the element -i- (e.g. OE mac i an > ME māken).

d) the double consonants in such verbs as habban, seggan, libban, etc.were contracted; besides, -b- was replaced by -v- on the analogy with the forms in -v- (ME haven, seyen, liven).

I class – lost -i- in the infinitive

OE styrian > ME stirren II class – lost -o- in the Past and Participle forms

OE lufian > ME loven

In ME the number of weak verbs grew rapidly because most of the newly formed and borrowed verbs came to be conjugated according to the patterns of the weak class.

In ENE the disappearance of unstressed –e in the 2^nd class of Past Tense resulted in that, the difference between 1^st and 2^nd classes was lost.

A number of weak verbs whose roots ended in – d/t formed a group where all 3 forms were identical, including also some strong verbs. A few weak verbs became strong (tō werian > to wear, tō scēawian – to show, tō hŷdan – to hide).

So in ENE we have the verb-system rearranged completely. The major group was regular verbs (former weak), the smaller group – irregular (former strong). The group of irregular verbs in ModE includes also the defective verbs: can-could, shall-should, and the suppletive forms: be-was/were-been.

3) Other classes. In ME from 12 OE preterite-present verbs only the verb z eneah (to be enough) was lost. The rest are well preserved with some changes in meaning and phonetic structure. Later, in ENE, their number was reduced to 6, which formed the group of modal verbs (can, may, must, shall, ought, dare). The verb dare has developed another form of the past tense dared on the analogy of the regular verbs. By the way, in ModE it tends to become a regular verb.

Anomalous. In ME the verb bēon remains suppletive, but it loses the parallel forms. The Participle II bēn filled the place of the missing form. The forms of Plural, Present Indicative sint/sindon were gradually replaced by aren. In Chaucer we still found the forms bē and are side by side. In ENE the form are becomes standard throughout the country.

The verb gān also remains suppletive, but its past tense ēode was replaced by ME form went (which is the past tense stem of the verb wenden – розвертатися).

The verb dōn underwent only phonetic changes.

The verb willan developed into an auxiliary and was used as a means of building the Future. In ModE will, when used in the meaning of volition, retains its modal meaning.

4) Development of analytical constructions. During OE period the system of the verb started to acquire some analytical elements instead of synthetic ones. Such formations were of importance for the development of English into analytical language: a) habban+ Part.II expressed the result of the action; b) wesan / bēon+ Part.II, weorðan+ Part.II expressed the result of the action. Actually in OE both these phrases were used to express a passive action; c) Constructions like Ic sceal+Infinitive (I am obliged to), Ic will+Infinitive (I wish to) served to express the connotation of obligation and desire.

A similar tendency for inflections to be replaced by more analytic devices is more intensively seen in ME. There appeared a complicated system of tenses which was built up by means of the primary auxiliaries (be, have, later do), and the modal auxiliaries (shall, will, should etc.).

The future tense with shall and will is established in ME. Actually shall and will have never entirely lost the connotation of obligation and desire, but today their main function is to signalize prediction or futurity, which developed in ME period.

The perfect tenses with habban / bēon, and the Passive forms with bēon / weorðan, which already existed in OE, came to be used more frequently in ME. In the Perfect have spread at the expense of be, but the latter was still common with verbs motion and state till ENE.

The Continuous Tenses arose in ME with the help of be+Participle I (He is coming), but they are not common until ModE.

By the end of ME, therefore, the perfect, passive, and continuous markers of the verb were all well established, though much less frequently used than today. And it was not until the 18^th century that it became possible to use all combinations with them.

VI. OE Adverbs were of several types: a) primary (were not derived from any other part of speech) þær “there”, nū “now”; b) secondary (which were derived from nouns or adjectives) dēop “deep” – dēope “deeply”. OE adverbs used the same suffixes for degrees of comparison as adjectives:

a) -r- for the comparative, -st- for the superlative.

b) some adverbs in the comparative degree had mutated forms: ēaþe “easily” – īeþ.

c) like adjectives, some adverbs had suppletive forms for degrees of comparison: micelle “much” – māre – mæst.

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