Changes that occurred in the West Germanic languages: • ē > ā •
a-mutation:
u >
o when
a follows in the next syllable. This affected the past participles of classes 2–4. However, an intervening
m or
n + consonant blocked this, so the past participle of class 3a kept
u. • Extension of umlaut to back vowels, causing it to apply also to verbs of class 6. • The perfective prefix
ga- came to be used (but neither exclusively nor invariably) as a marker of the participle. In English this prefix disappeared again in the Middle Ages.
English Old English The following changes occurred from West Germanic to
Old English: •
ai >
ā •
eu >
ēo •
au >
ēa •
a >
æ except when a back vowel followed in the next syllable •
ā >
ǣ •
Breaking before certain consonants:
æ >
ea and
e >
eo • West Saxon Palatalisation:
i > ie after
g The following are the paradigms for Old English: With j-presents (and other anomalies): •
hōf hōfon hafen ("to raise, heave") •
scōp scōpon scapen ("to create, shape") •
swōr swōron sworen ("to swear") The verb "to stand" follows class 6. The anomalous
-n- in the present is a relic of the PIE
nasal infix: •
stōd stōdon standen Some relics of class 7 reduplication remain in Old English, mostly in texts from Anglia (infinitive and past singular shown): •
bēatan beoft ("to beat") •
hātan hēht ("to call") •
lācan leolc ("to move about, leap") •
lǣtan leort ("to let") •
on-drǣdan on-dreord ("to dread") •
rēdan reord ("to advise") •
spātan speoft ("to spit") Changes that occurred from Old English to
Modern English: • ā > ō •
Great Vowel Shift • The old second-person singular ("thou") form acquires the ending "-st" in the past, but the second-person singular falls out of common use and is replaced with the second-person plural. • Elimination of almost all verb inflection in strong verbs, except for the third-person singular present ending
-s (and the second-person ending "-(e)st", when used). • Either the past singular form or the past plural form is generalised to the other number. As a result, only one form exists for all past tense forms and parts 2 and 3 are no longer distinguished. • Combined with the above, all consonant alternations are eliminated by generalising the consonant of the present. Only
be preserves the alternation:
was versus
were.
Modern English In Modern English, generally speaking, the verb classes have disintegrated and are not easily recognisable. For the principal parts of all English strong verbs see:
Wiktionary appendix: Irregular English verbs. The following modern English verbs resemble the original paradigm:
Class 1 Class 1 is still recognisable, as in most other Germanic languages. The modern past is taken from either the old past singular (
ride rode ridden) or the old past plural (
bite bit bitten). In the case of
shine shone shone, the past participle has also assimilated to the past singular. Class 1 roots in modern English (excluding derived verbs such as
abide and
override) are
, , , , , , , , , /, , , , , , , , .
Bide, chide, rive, shine, shrive, strive, thrive can also be weak. However, although most of these verbs have uniformity in their infinitive vowel, they no longer form a coherent class in further inflected forms – for example,
bite (
bit, bitten),
ride (
rode, ridden),
shine (
shone, shone), and
strike (
struck, struck/stricken, with
struck and
stricken used in different meanings) all show different patterns from one another – but
bide, drive, ride, rise, smite, stride, strive, write do form a (more or less) coherent subclass. Most of these verbs are descended from Old English class 1 verbs. However: •
strive is a French loan-word which is class 1 by analogy to
drive. (By coincidence it is ultimately descended from an
Old Frankish class 1 verb.) •
thrive is a class 1 verb formed by analogy to
drive, its Old English ancestor being weak and descended from Old Norse
þrífa (itself a class 1 strong verb, meaning "to grasp"). •
hide is a class 1 verb whose Old English ancestor,
hȳdan, was weak. In American English, the past tense of the verb ''
is usually dove
, as though it is in Class 1, but the past participle is still dived''.
Class 2 Class 2 does not form a coherent class, as each verb has developed different irregularities. It includes
, , , and ''
(whose usual passive participle is shot
rather than shotten
). The verb (in the sense of "to offer") was in Class 2, but now the past and past participle are bid
. The obsolete verb is now used only as the passive participle forlorn''.
Class 3 Class 3 in English is still fairly large and regular. The past is formed either from the old past singular or from the past plural. Many of the verbs have two past forms, one of which may be dialectal or archaic (
begin, drink, ring, shrink, sing, slink, spin, spring, stink, swing, swim and
wring). The class 3a verbs in modern English are: • normal past in
a:
, , , , , , • normal past in
u or
ou:
, , , , , , , , , , , , • past can have either
a or
u:
, , , , (in colloquial language, '''' can be analogically brought into this subclass) English
fling does not go back to Old English, and may be a loan-word from Norse. It seems to have adopted class 3 forms by analogy with
cling etc. Similarly,
ring and
string were historically weak. The verb
ding (in the meaning of to hit) was in this class as well, but is now usually treated as a weak verb. Class 3b has shrunk to only four members: • '''' (the past tense is weak, but retains the strong participle ‘molten’ ) • ''
(but the past tense is now often swelled
instead of swole'', and sometimes the passive participle as well) • '''' • '
, its past tense and participle have both become the same as the present tense. This is also the case for its variant '
Class 4 In Modern English, regular class 4 verbs have all kept the
–n in the participle, though eliminating the medial
e after
r, this class exhibits near homogeneity of vowel pattern: •
break broke broken but several verbs have archaic preterites that preserve the "a" of Middle English (
bare, brake, gat, sware, tare, and
spake or
Scots spak). Class 4 verbs in English (not including derivatives such as
beget) are
, , , , , , , , , , ; and without the
-n and of irregular vowel progression: ''
. Get, speak, tread
and weave
(weave
, and occasionally tread
, can also be weak) were originally of class 5, whereas swear
was originally class 6. Wake
was also originally class 6, and in fact retains the "a" of the present tense – the preterite woke
(Middle English wook'') only conforms to the modern class 4 preterite, not to the historic class 4 preterite in "a". The verb ''
is anomalous in all the West Germanic languages because it originally began with qu-
, and the subsequent loss of the w
sound coloured the vowel of the present stem. modern English "come came come", compared to Old English cymþ – cōm cōmon – cumen
and Middle English comen – cam or com – comen''.
Class 5 In Modern English this group has lost all group cohesion. •
eat ate eaten •
give gave given •
lie lay lain •
see saw seen •
sit sat sat (archaic
sitten) Class 5 verbs in Modern English: ''
(in the sense of "to command" or "to invite"), , , ,
(= lie down), ,
. The verb is only used poetically now. Get, speak, tread
, and weave'', which come from Class 5 verbs, are now Class 4. The verb '
comes from a Class 2 verb in Old English, as did ' in the sense of "to offer, proclaim", but
forbid is conflated with the other verb
bid ("to command"). The preterite can be
forbad or
forbade, or even
forbid. The preterite
ate is pronounced "et" in some British dialects; historically the form
eat, homophonous with the present stem was also found for the preterite. Although the verb
to be is suppletive and highly irregular, its past follows the pattern of a class 5 strong verb, with
grammatischer Wechsel (the alternation of "s" and "r" in "was" versus "were"), and has uniquely retained the singular/plural distinction of both ablaut grade and consonant in the modern languages. Old English: ''
, English: was/were''. For full paradigms and historical explanations see
Indo-European copula.
Class 6 Class 6 has disintegrated as well. The verbs
shake,
take and
forsake come closest to the original vowel sequence. The consonant anomaly in
stand is still visible, and is extended to the participle. •
shake shook shaken •
stand stood stood Class 6 verbs in modern English:
, , , , , , , , , . The verb is in this class when used in a nautical context. Like most other classes in Modern English, this class has lost cohesion and now forms principal parts according to many different patterns. Two preterites (
drew and
slew) are now spelled with "ew", which is similar in sound to the "oo" of the others that still use a strong form.
Swear is now class 4. The adjective
graven was originally a past participle of the now obsolete verb
grave.
Lade, shape, shave, are now weak outside of their optionally strong past participle forms (
laden, shapen,
shaven, and
waxen respectively).
Fare has archaic past tense
fore and rare past participle
faren, but is normally weak now.
Class 7 In
Modern English, this class has lost its homogeneity: •
fall fell fallen •
hang hung hung (In the transitive sense of hanging someone by the neck,
hang usually has regular weak conjugation
hanged) •
hold held held (the original past participle is preserved in the adjective
beholden) •
throw threw thrown The following modern English verbs descend from class 7 verbs, and still retain strong-verb endings:
, , , , , , , , . (
Hew can be a preterite or present, although the usual preterite, and sometimes the participle too, is
hewed.) The verb ''
can be considered Class 7, though the past participle now lacks the ending -en''. The verbs '
and ' sometimes retain the strong-verb participles
mown and
sown but the preterites are now usually
mowed and
sowed. (The verb ''
was always weak, even though one can say sewn
for the past participle.) The verb , originally a weak verb, has acquired a strong past participle shown
, and in some dialects even a class 7 strong past tense shew
(This "shew" is not to be confused with present "shew", which is an older spelling of, and pronounced the same as, "show"). Archaic English still retained the reduplicated form hight
("called", originally a past tense, usually with a passive meaning, but later also used as a passive participle). The verb '' was also in class 7, as in the
King James Version "while he yet spake, the cock crew".
Dutch Old Dutch is attested only fragmentarily, so it is not easy to give forms for all classes. Hence, Middle Dutch is shown here in that role instead. The situation of Old Dutch generally resembled that of Old Saxon and Old High German in any case. Changes from West Germanic to Old Dutch: •
ai >
ē (but sometimes
ei is preserved) •
au >
ō •
eu >
iu •
ē >
ie •
ō >
uo (later becomes , spelled in Middle Dutch) From Old Dutch to
Middle Dutch: •
u >
o •
ū >
ȳ (spelled ) •
iu >
ȳ (northern dialects) •
iu >
io >
ie (southern dialects) • Lengthening of vowels in open syllables:
e >
ē,
o >
ō,
a >
ā, although it continues to be written with a single vowel.
i is lengthened to
ē, and short
y (from umlaut of
u) to
eu . • Unlike most other languages, umlaut does not affect long vowels or diphthongs except in the eastern dialects. • Because of the combined effect of the two above points, umlaut is eliminated as a factor in verb conjugation. From Middle Dutch to
Modern Dutch: • Diphthongisation of long high vowels: > , > (spelled and ) • Monophthongisation of opening diphthongs: > , > (still spelled and )
Class 1 This class is well preserved and has the most strong verbs. Not only has it preserved many strong verbs inherited from the proto language, it was also able to expand by introducing the strong inflection to a large number of weak verbs by analogy. Sound changes caused the historical ‘ai’ and ‘i’ in open syllables, to merge as a long ‘e’ essentially merging parts 2,3,4. Regular class 1 pattern (
ɛi-e:-e:-e:): • Inherited strong roots:
, , , , , , , , , , , (can also be a weak verb), ''
("to cry"), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ''. • Historically weak: ''
(influenced by lijden
), , , , , , ,
(Flemish), (also weak), , ''. • Two verbs with 'ei' have also joined this class by analogy, as 'ij' and 'ei' are pronounced the same:
, . • Non-standard, archaic or dialectal strong verbs: '
(strong verb forms are archaic), ' (strong forms are common but non-standard), '
(strong forms are common but non-standard), ' (a dialectal strong verb), '
(strong forms are common but non-standard), ' / '
(a dialectal strong verb), ' (archaic strong verb, in the sense of playing a windinstrument), '
(an archaic strong verb), ' (archaic/dialectal strong verb), '
(dialectal strong verb), ' (the past tense
gedee(g) is dialectal, the strong past participle ''
has the meaning thorough
whereas the weak past participle gedijd
means thriven'', which corresponds to the regular meaning of the verb).
Class 2 A notable development in Dutch is the growth of class 2b at the expense of class 2a. Like class 1, sound changes caused the historical ‘au’ and ‘u’ in open syllables, to merge as a long ‘o’ merging parts 2,3,4. Regular class 2a roots (
i-o:-o:-o:): • Inherited strong roots:
, , , , , , , , , , ("to seethe", weak in the sense "to be agitated"). :* Restricted to literary or poetic use: , , . Regular class 2b roots (
œy-o:-o:-o:): • Inherited strong roots:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , . • Historically weak:
, , , , , . • Non-standard, archaic or dialectal strong verbs: '
(strong forms are used in colloquial Flemish), ' (a weak verb, strong forms are archaic), '
(weak verb, strong forms are archaic), ' (an archaic strong verb), '
(strong forms are used in southern dialects), ' (an archaic strong verb), '
(an archaic strong verb), ' (strong forms are common but non-standard). Anomalous class 2 roots: • The verbs '
and ' preserved the
grammatischer Wechsel:
verliezen-verloor-verloren, vriezen-vroor-gevroren. Although the root
kiezen has lost the alternation, the derived verb
(uit) still displays it in poetic or archaic contexts:
verkiezen-verkoor-verkoren. • The verb '''' has a class 2 past tense and participle when it means 'to pull'. • The verb '''' can also be declined with a class 2 past tense and participle.
Class 3 Class 3a and 3b have generalised part 3 to part 2, eliminating the
-a- from this class. Some 3b verbs have a past in
-ie- like class 7:
helpen – hielp – geholpen. This can be considered a new "class 3 + 7". Regular class 3a roots (
ɪ-ɔ-ɔ-ɔ): • Inherited strong roots:
, , , , , -ginnen ( – ), , , , , (archaic), , , , , , (literary/poetic), , , , , , , . • Historically weak:
, . Regular class 3b roots (
ɛ-ɔ-ɔ-ɔ): • Inherited strong roots:
, , , , , , , , , , , (archaic). • Three verbs of another class have joined with 3b: '
, ' (both class 5)
, (class 3a). • Historically weak:
, , ; These verbs became strong by reinterpreting the
Rückumlaut that was present in some Old and Middle Dutch weak verbs as a strong vowel alternation. Class 3 + 7 roots (
ɛ-i-i-ɔ): • Inherited strong verbs:
-derven ( – ), , , , , . Anomalous class 3 roots: • The verb ''
(to become) also belonged to class 3b, but the past and present vowels appear to have been swapped: worden werd geworden''. • Semi-strong with a weak past tense and a strong participle: '''', the verb changed the older vowels 'e' and 'o' into 'a':
barsten – barstte – gebarsten Class 4 Class 4 and 5 verbs still show the distinction in vowel between the past singular (part 2) and plural (part 3), although this is not obvious due to the rules of
Dutch orthography:
ik nam ("I took") has the plural
wij namen (not
*nammen), that is, the 'short' vowel of the singular is replaced by the 'long' in the plural. (Note the relationship of consonant doubling to vowel length, which is explained at
Dutch orthography). The pattern is therefore:
breken brak (braken) gebroken ("to break") Regular class 4 roots (
eː-ɑ-a:-oː):
, , , , , . Class 4 roots with 'o(o)' in the preterite (
eː-o:-o:-oː): '
, ' and '''' ("to hurt, to sore"). Anomalous roots: • The present tense vowel of the verb ''
was influenced by a preceding w
, which was subsequently lost. The etymological w
is retained in the past, unlike English or German: k
omen – k
wam – k
wamen – gek
omen''. • Semi-strong with a weak past tense and a strong participle: ''
(helen
is a weak verb however), ''.
Class 5 Regular class 5 roots (
eː-ɑ-a:-eː):
, , , , , , , Class 5 j-present roots (
ɪ--ɑ-a:-eː):
, , . These have a short 'i' in part 1 because of the gemination of the consonants, they retain the long 'e' vowel in part 4. Anomalous roots: • The root ''
("to see") has experienced a loss of the original , with a resulting assimilation of the stem vowel to the vowel of the inflection, and shows Grammatischer Wechsel between this original and a in the past: z
ien – z
ag – z
agen – gez
ien''. • The preterite of
/ ("to be") still shows both (quantitative) ablaut and
grammatischer Wechsel between the singular and plural:
was/waren. • Semi-strong with a weak past tense and a strong participle: ''''.
Class 6 Class 6 has become very small, many of its verbs have gone weak or have become semi-strong. Regular class 6 roots (
a-u-u-a):
, , . Anomalous roots: • The verb ''
(to hit) like the verb zien
has experienced a loss of the original , with a resulting assimilation of the stem vowel to the vowel of the inflection, and shows Grammatischer Wechsel between this original and a in the past: sl
aan – sl
oeg – sl
oegen – gesl
agen''. • The suppleted past tense of the verb '''' ("to stand") also belonged to this class, it now declines with a short 'o':
staan – stond – stonden – gestaan. • The three inherited j-presents,
, , and
, ("to swear an oath") historically decline with 'e'-'oe'-'oe'-'a(a)'. In the modern language they decline irregularly, two have taken 'ie' in the past tense, all three have taken separate vowels in the participle:
scheppen – schiep – geschapen ("to create"),
heffen – hief – geheven ("to lift, raise"),
zweren – zwoer – gezworen ("to swear an oath"),. • Semi-strong roots with a strong past tense and a weak participle:
, (Flemish, colloquially)
, , . • Semi-strong roots with a weak past tense and a strong participle:
, , , ("to fare" The sense "to travel by boat" has a class 6 past
voer)
Class 7 Class 7 has shrunk in the modern language, like class 6 many of its verbs have become semi-strong. This class has an -ie- in the past tense, the past participle has the same vowel as the present tense. (The verbs with * are nowadays mostly semi-strong) • Class 7a has disappeared. The verbs '
("to call") and ' ("to separate") have become semi-strong. • Class 7b:
, *. • Class 7c:
, , , , , , * (The meaning to "to grow" is always strong but is archaic, the meaning "to wash" is mostly semi-strong). :* One verb displays
L-vocalization:
houden – hield – gehouden ("to hold") :* As in German, two anomalous class 7c verbs have formed new present stems, and shortened the vowel in the past tense:
vangen – ving – gevangen ("to catch") and
hangen – hing – gehangen ("to hang"). The suppleted past tense of the verb
gaan ("to go") also belongs to this class and is declined:
gaan – ging – gegaan. • Class 7d:
, , , *. • Class 7e: ''''. • Semi-strong roots with a weak past tense and a strong participle:
, , , , , , (
uitscheiden is a class 1 verb however)
, , , (in the meaning 'to split')
, , (the past had -ield-, like
houden)
, , (the past had -ielt-, like
houden).
Other A special case is '''', which is a weak verb that can decline with a strong participle in some circumstances, even though the verb was never strong to begin with.
Afrikaans The distinction between simple past, present and past perfect has been lost in
Afrikaans, as the original past tense has fallen out of use almost entirely, being replaced with the old present perfect tense using (usually) a strong past participle. For example, the ancestral
Dutch hij zong has become
hy het gesing ("he sang/has sung/had sung"). Modal verbs tend to retain their strong past tense, and a handful of other verbs do so too. Verbs almost never retain both a strong past tense and a strong past participle, due to the loss of the grammatical distinction. The exception is
wees ("to be"), which does retain both
was and
gewees. Nonetheless, there are many verbs for which the new past tense is formed with a strong past participle, such as
geboë from
buig ("bend") or
gedrewe from
dryf ("drive" to set into motion). The notion exists that strong past participles always have a figurative meaning, and weak and strong past participles sometimes coexist within the language. Sometimes, this seems to be the case. For instance, compare strong and figurative
bedorwe jeug ("spoiled youth") to weak and literal
bederfde yoghurt ("spoiled yoghurt"), or strong and figurative
gebroke hart ("broken heart") to weak and literal
gebreekte vaas ("broken vase"). Nonetheless, this notion is not 100% accurate. Sometimes the strong past participle just happens to be more common. For instance, the strong participles are used in
bevrore groente ("frozen vegetables") and
aangenome kinders ("adopted children").
German From West Germanic to
Old High German: •
High German consonant shift •
ē >
ia •
ai >
ei, then
ei > ē before
r,
h and
w •
au >
ou, then
ou > ō before dentals (
þ,
d,
t,
n,
l,
s,
z,
r) and
h. •
e > i before
u • Class 1 has two subclasses, depending on the vowel in the past singular: • 1a
rītan rītu reit ritum giritan ("to ride") • 1b
līhan līhu lēh ligum giligan ("to loan" – note
grammatischer Wechsel.) • Class 2b verbs are rare, unlike in the more northern languages. • A few relics of reduplication remain: •
ana-stōzan ana-sterōz ("to strike") •
pluozan pleruzzun ("to sacrifice"), in Upper German with the change b > p •
ki-scrōtan ki-screrōt ("to cut"), in Upper German with the change g > k •
būan biruun ("to dwell"); this was not a class 7 strong verb originally Changes from Old High German to
Modern German: •
io,
ia,
ie >
ī (spelled ) •
ei, ī > ai (retaining the spelling ) •
ou, ū > au •
ȳ > ɔy (spelled or ) •
i > ī (spelled ) before a single consonant. • Alternations between past singular and plural are eliminated by generalising part 3 or part 2. If part 3 is generalised in verbs with alternations of the
s-r type, it is not just generalised to the past singular but also to the present. The classes are still well preserved in modern German.
Class 1 In class 1, part 3 is generalised, eliminating the older
-ei- or
-e-. However, a new subdivision arises because the
i of the past tense forms is lengthened to
ie before a single consonant.
reiten ritt geritten ("to ride") versus
leihen lieh geliehen ("to loan"). Class 1 verbs in modern German are: • Class 1 with a long vowel in the preterite and participle (
aɪ̯-i:-i:) : , , , , , , , , , / , , , :* Historically weak roots:
(Swiss german), , , (Swiss german) • Class 1 with a short vowel in the preterite and participle (
aɪ̯-ɪ-ɪ) :
, (archaic), , (dialectal), , , , , , , , , , , , , (archaic), , , . :* Historically weak roots:
, , • Anomalous class 1 roots: The verbs '
and ' preserved the verner alternation: "lei
den – li
tt – geli
tten, schnei
den – schni
tt – geschni
tten".
Class 2 In class 2, part 2 is generalised, eliminating older
-u-. Class 2b verbs are rare, as in Old High German. • Class 2a with a long vowel in the preterite and participle (
i:-o:-o:) :
, , , , , , , , , , . • Class 2a with a short vowel in the preterite and participle (
i:-ɔ-ɔ) :
, , , , , , , , , , . Anomalous class 2a roots: :* The roots '
and ' have preserved the verner alternation: "sie
den – so
tt – geso
tten" and "zie
hen – zo
g – gezo
gen" :* The roots '
("to tell a lie") and ' ("to deceive"), have changed their present tense vowels from 'ie' to 'ü'. This no doubt arises from a desire to disambiguate Middle High German
liegen from
ligen (class 5), which would have sounded the same after vowel lengthening.
Trügen would have followed in its wake, because the two words form a common rhyming collocation. :* The verb '
has become obsolete, however the strong past tense and past participle are still used. Some speakers reinterpreted these forms as if they are part of the related verb ', creating the pattern:
küren-
kor-
gekoren. In German class 2b was never large, the modern language retains the following verbs:
, , , .
Class 3 In class 3, part 2 is generalised. The
o of the 3b participle has been passed by analogy to some 3a verbs, and also to the past of some verbs of both groups:
beginnen begann begonnen,
bergen barg geborgen ("to rescue"),
quellen quoll gequollen ("to well up"). Thus, there are now 5 subgroups: Class 3a • regular (
ɪ-a-ʊ) :
, (by analogy), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , (by analogy), , . • with substitution of o in the participle (
ɪ-a-ɔ) :
, , , , , . • with substitution of o in the preterite and participle (
ɪ-ɔ-ɔ) :
, . Class 3b • regular (
ɛ-a-ɔ) :
, , , , , , , , . • with substitution of o in preterite (
ɛ-ɔ-ɔ) :
, , , , , , , . Anomalous class 3 roots: :* The root '
generalizes part 3 instead of part 2 (ɛ-ʊ-ɔ'
), and also suffixes -e; werden, wurde, geworden
. The original (part 2) singular preterite ward'' is still recognizable to Germans, but is archaic. :* The root '''' replaced the vowel of the infintive with 'ö' (
œ-ɔ-ɔ). :* The root '''' can be declined with a strong past tense in 'o'. :* The root '''' which was originally weak, acquired an anomalous strong inflection with 'u' (
ɪ-ʊ-ʊ).
Class 4 In class 4, the long
-a- of part 3 was generalised to part 2. Example:
nehmen nahm genommen ("to take"). • Class 4 with long vowels in the present tense (
eː-a:-o:) :
, , . • Class 4 with long vowels and substitution with o in preterite (
eː-o:-o:) :
, , , , , . • Class 4 with a long vowel in the present tense and short in the participle (
eː-a:-ɔ) : ''''. • Class 4 with short vowels in the present tense and participle (
ɛ-a:-ɔ) :
, , , , . Several of these verbs have been moved into this class from other classes.
sprechen and
treffen were originally class 5,
befehlen was originally class 3, and
stechen was originally class 1 (having had a change in the present vowel).
schrecken was originally a weak verb and remains weak in transitive use. : Anomalous: :*''
("to come") still has the anomalous o
in the present stem (although some dialects have regularised it to kemmen
): kommen kam gekommen''
Class 5 Class 5 is little changed from Old High German, like class 4 the long
-a- of part 3 was generalised. • Class 5 with long vowels in the present tense and participle (
e:-a:-e:) :
, , , , , . • Class 5 with short vowels in the present tense and participle (
ɛ-a:-ɛ) :
, , , . :* The verb
essen ("to eat") had a past participle
giezzan in OHG; in MHG this became
geezzen which was contracted to
gezzen and then re-prefixed to
gegezzen. :* j-presents:
, , . : Anomalous: :* The preterite of ''
("to be") is Old High German: was/wârun
, but levelled in modern German: war/waren''.
Class 6 Class 6 is also preserved. In Modern German the
uo is monophthongised to
u. • Class 6 with long vowels in present tense and participle (
a:-u:-a:) :
, , , , . • Class 6 with short vowels in present tense and participle (
a-u:-a) :
, , , .
backen is usually weak nowadays. Anomalous class 6 roots: • The j-presents
, have taken an
o in the preterite and participle, perhaps by analogy with class 2:
heben hob gehoben. The verb
schwören has changed
e to
ö. • The past tense and participle of ''
(stand
, older stund
, gestanden
), which derive from a lost verb *standen'', also belong to this class. • With a strong participle only: '''' • The root '''' acquired a rarely used strong inflection beside the historically weak forms.
Class 7 In class 7, the various past tense vowels have merged into a single uniform
--. • Class 7a: only , as has become a class 1 strong verb. • Class 7b: , , • Class 7c:
, :*
, have back-formed new present stems from the past stem, and have eliminated
grammatischer Wechsel and shortened the vowel in the past tense:
fangen fing gefangen ("to catch"),
hängen hing gehangen ("to hang"). :* The past tense and participle of German ''
, ging gegangen
, derive from a lost verb *gangen
which belongs to this class. (The verb still exists in other languages, such as the verb gang'' used in Scotland and northern England.) :* With a strong participle only:
, , • Class 7d:
, , , , • Class 7e: ''''
Low German The following changes occurred from West Germanic to Old Saxon: •
ai >
ē •
au >
ō •
eu >
io From Old Saxon to Middle Low German: •
u >
o •
io >
e As in Middle Dutch Lengthening of vowels in open syllables:
e >
ē,
o >
ō,
a >
ā,
ö >
ȫ, ü >
ǖ.
i Is often lengthened to
ē. There is no single Modern Low German, and some sources gives different forms than this. E.g. see • Alfred v. d. Velde: ''Zu Fritz Reuter! Praktische Anleitung zum Verständniß des Plattdeutschen an der Hand des ersten Kapitels des Fritz Reuter'schen Romanes: "Ut mine Stromtid". Zweite Auflage.'' Leipzig, 1881, p. 60–63 • Julius Wiggers:
Grammatik der plattdeutschen Sprache. In Grundlage der Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommerschen Mundart. Zweite Auflage. Hamburg, 1858, p. 57 ff. Some differences: • They have
böd, böden instead of
bood, boden,
föll, föllen instead of
full, fullen,
stürw, stürwen, storwen instead of
storv, storven, storven. • They have
spreken with
sprök (thus not "4 regular (e-o-a)") From Middle Low German to Modern Low German: •
ā >
ē •
ō >
ā except before
r •
a >
o in preterite forms •
e >
a/
ö when followed by two different consonants Most classes are quite well preserved, although the cohesion of some has been lost substantially or even entirely. • Class 1 verbs in Low German are
bieten, blieven, blieken, diegen/diehen, drieven, glieden, griepen, kieken, lieden, lieken, mieden, rieten, schienen, schieten, schrieden, schrien/schriegen, schrieven, slieken, sliepen, slieten, smieten, snieden, splieten, stiegen, strieden, strieken, swiegen, verdwienen, wieken, wiesen, wrieven and the originally weak verbs
glieken,
kniepen,
priesen by analogy. Some other verbs take either strong or weak past endings:
piepen,
riesen and
spieten. • In class 2, part 2 is generalised, eliminating older -u-. Unlike in German but as in Dutch and English, class 2b has grown by moving older class 2a verbs into it. They are
beden, bedregen, kesen, legen, flegen, fleten, freren/fresen, geneten, geten, krepen, reken, scheten, spreten, tehn, verleren/verlesen; with ū-present:
bugen, krupen, schuven, snuven, sluten, supen, sugen, stuven. The verbs
rüken and
stöven show anomalous infinitive forms. Some verbs can take either strong or weak past endings:
duken and
schulen. • In class 3, the form of the past participle seems to have been generalised to preterite forms. There are now 5 subgroups + two olders subgroups reduced to one verb each: • 3a regular (i-u-u):
binnen, dringen, drinken, dwingen, finnen, gelingen, klingen, ringen, slingen, swinnen, swingen, singen, sinken, springen, stinken, wringen. Verbs that may take either strong or weak past endings:
blinken, glimmen and
klimmen. • 3a with ü-infinitive (ü-u-u):
begünnen, swümmen • 3b regular (a-o-o):
bargen, basten/barsten, starven, verdarven, warpen, warrn, warven • 3b with ö-infinitive (ö-o-o):
hölpen, smölten • 3b with e-infinitive and -u- past forms because of phonetical influence of -ll- (e-u-u):
gellen, schellen, swellen • 3b with e-infinitive (e-o-o):
fechten • 3b with e-infinitive and different preterite and past participle forms (e-o-a) due to analogy with class 4 verbs:
befehlen. • In class 4, parts 2 and 3 seem to have merged into -ē-, but due to the influence of past participle forms mostly with a -ō- sound (nowadays written -ā-) a new ending -ō- has arisen: • 4 regular (e-o-a):
breken, schrecken (with vowel lengthening:
schrook, schraken),
spreken, stehlen. • 4 with two possible preterite forms (e-o/e-a):
nehmen, steken • 4 with a-infinitive (a-o-a):
drapen :The verb
kamen still shows the -u- infinitive which became -a-:
kamen, keem, kamen. The verb to be,
wesen, levelled its old preterite forms
was/
weren into
weer/
weren, although
was still appears in some dialects. • In class 5 too the -ē- forms of past participle seem to have influenced the preterite forms. Class 5 regular verbs (ē-ē-ē) include:
eten, geven, schehn (preterite
scheh or
scheeg)
, lesen (nowadays mostly a weak verb)
, meten, sehn (preterite
seeg)
and vergeten. Verbs with j-presents:
bidden (sometimes confused with
beden)
, liggen, sitten. :The verb
treden is anomalous as it has kept the -a- infinitive forms in the preterite and with the variation in vowel length, thus it has
tradd,
traddst,
tradd in the singular with but
traden in the plural with . However, normal class 5 preterite forms
treed, treedst, treed, treden may also be found. • Class 6 is preserved as well however it has lost its cohesion. Regular class 6 verbs (ā-ō-ā) are
graven and
slaan (with anomalous infinitive and past participle
slaan from earlier
slagen). The 3 inherited j-presents have chosen different paths to make their past forms:
heven is now similar to a class 5 verb and has
heev in the preterite and
heven in the past participle,
schapen is a weak verb with strong past participle
schapen and
swören kept its preterite
swoor as well as its past participle
sworen – even though it may found with weak past forms. :The verb
fohren is now merging with
föhren and takes weak past endings. The verb
dregen has an anomalous infinitive in -ē- but has kept its class 6 past forms
droog,
drogen (preterite) and
dragen (past participle). The verb laden has gone weak but has
laden beside
laadt in the past participle. The past tense of
stahn (
stunn), which derives from Middle Low German
standen, also belongs to this class. :Finally the verb
waschen shows preterite
wusch and past participle
wuschen, just like
fallen, fangen and
hangen, they seem to make a new strong verb class. • In class 7, the various past tense forms have merged into a uniform -ee-. • 7a (ē-ē-ē) has one single verb:
heten since
scheden has gone weak. • 7b (ō-ē-ō) also includes one verb:
lopen,
stoten has gone weak but it kept its strong past participle
stoten. • 7c has lost cohesion. 7c verb
holen (from Old Saxon
haldan) has regular
heel in the past tense and past participle
holen, but
fallen, fangen, hangen and
gahn (from Old Saxon
gangan) show
full and
fullen,
fung and
fullen,
hung and
hungen,
gung/güng (but past participle
gahn) in the preterite and past participle, all with a short -u-. Class 6 verb
waschen has also joined this "new class" and has preterite and past participle
wusch and
wuschen. • 7d (ā-ē-ā) verbs include:
laten and
slapen,
raden and
braden are semi-strong as they still have their strong past participles
raden and
braden (though a weak form
braadt may be encountered).
Blasen has gone weak. • 7e (ō-ē-ō) is reduced to one single verb:
ropen. This subgroup had become similar to 7b already in Old Saxon. ==North Germanic==