Conjugation of Verbs

Present indicative

Person	Singular number	Plural number
	Early ME	Late ME	Early ME	Late ME
	ich tell-e	I tell-e	we tell-eth(in the South) ye} tell-(e)s(in the North) they tell-en(Midlands)	we you tell -e they
	thou tell-est	you tell-e
	he tell-eth(in the South), he tell-es(in the North)	he tell-es

 

The verbs haven and bēn preserved their forms of the 3-rd person, singular in -eth: hath, doth long after; later has and does ousted them..

The use of -eth was stylistically restricted to high poetry and religious texts.

The loss of the plural ending –n in the past indicative led to the disappearance of person and number distinctions, with the exception of the form of the 2-nd person singular, which kept the ending -est, but for a short time.

Conjugation of Verbs

Past Indicative

tellen (a weak verb), bynden (a strong verb)

Person	Singular number	Plural number
	I told-e,bǭnd	we you told(en), bound(en) they
	thou told-est,bound-e
	he told-e,bǭnd

Changes in the Morphological Classes of Verbs in Middle English and Early New English

All types of verbs existing in OE – strong, weak, preterite-present and irregular – were, on the whole, well preserved in ME.

Strong Verbs

In ME strong verbs underwent essential changes.

Both the infinitive ending - an and the past plural ending - on were weakened to - en (- n) and coincided with the ending of the past plural - en. As a result, many basic forms of the verb fell together and became homonymous.

Changes of the Basic Forms of Strong Verbs in Middle English and Early New English

Class	Period	Infinitive	Past sg	Past pl	Past Participle
	OE	wrītan	wrāt	writon	writen
ME	writen	wrote	writen	writen
NE	write	wrote	written
	OE	cēosan	cēas	curon	coren
ME	chesen	chees	chosen	chosen
NE	choose	chose	chosen
	OE	findan	fand	fundon	funden
ME	finden	fand	founden	founden
NE	find	found	found
	OE	beran	bær	bǣron	boren
ME	beren	bar	beren/bar	boren
NE	bear	bore	born
	OE	sp(r)ecan	sp(r)æc	spǣcon	specen
ME	speken	spak	speken/spak	spoken
NE	speak	spoke	spoken
	OE	scacan	scōc	scōcon	scacen
ME	shaken	shook	shoken	shaken
NE	shake	shook	shaken
	OE	cnāwan	cnēow	cnēowon	cnāwen
ME	knowen	knew	knewen	knowen
NE	know	knew	known

 

In Early New English the final -n was lost in the infinitive and the past tense plural, but sometimes it remained intact in the past participle, probably, to distinguish the participle from other forms. Cf NE stole – stolen, spoke – spoken, but bound – bound.

In the Northern dialects the root vowel of the past singular began to penetrate into the past plural, whereas in the South and South-West the root vowel of the past singular was often replaced by that of the past plural or the past participle, thus preparing the reduction of four main forms of strong verbs to three.

With the loss of the distinction between the past singular and past plural, the number of the basic forms of the strong verbs was reduced from four to three.

 

Infinitive	Past	Past participle
write	wrote	written
shake	shook	shaken

 

Root vowel interchange as a form-building means became unproductive.

Grammatical alternation of consonants has been completely lost (Cf OE cēo s an–cēa s – cu r on–co r en – ME che s en–cho s e–cho s en), except the interchange of z-r in wa s -we r e.

The distinctions between the verb classes which had similar forms disappeared, e.g. OE sp(r)ecan (class 5) began to build the past participle like verbs of class 4 (spoken).

In ME and in Early NE the number of strong verbs diminished. More than a hundred verbs were lost altogether, among them faren, niman. Some of them became obsolete (e.g. weorþan), others became weak (slǣpan > sleep): they began to form their past and past participle with the help of the dental suffix instead of vowel gradation (slept).

Out of 195 OE strong verbs, preserved in the English language, only 67 have retained strong forms with root-vowel interchanges. 128 verbs acquired weak forms. Nowadays most of them belong to regular or standard verbs.

The number of new verbs, which joined the classes of strong verbs, was very small – several former weak verbs: NE dig, hide, stick, wear and three borrowings – take < Sc taka, thrive < Sc þrīfa and strive < Fr estriver.