III. NOTES ON THE IRREGULAR VERBS.

1. The definition usually given of irregular verbs is founded on a negation-they do not form their past and past participle by the addition of -ed to the root. But this class of verbs has also a positive characteristic: all verbs properly called irregular form (or once formed) their past tense by a modification of the root-vowel: as, write, wrote; hold, held; do, did. Moreover, the past participle of all verbs of this class was originally formed by the addition of the suffix -en: as, give, giv-en; took, tak-en though this inflection has now vanished from many verbs.

2. Disguised Regulars.-For ordinary purposes, and for parsing, the common classification of verbs as regular or irregular, according as they do or do not form their past and past participle by adding -ed, is sufficient; but the classification is in some respects superficial. For if we consider as not regular all verbs that do not form their past and past participle by the addition of -ed, a considerable number of verbs will be thrown out of the class of verbs "regular" which are not to be classified as "irregular verbs," taking as the test of irregularity the distinguishing marks given above: as, bless, blest; build, built.

Verbs of this kind, though usually classed as irregular, belong strictly speaking to the class of regular verbs, since the irregularities they present are merely a matter of euphony. These may be called disguised regulars. And among them we note the following varieties:

(1.) In some verbs in which -ed makes no additional syllable, -t is substituted for -ed, especially in the past participle. This occurs in

the following cases:

(a) When -ed is sounded like t: as, bless, blessed (pronounced blest); past participle, blest.

(b) After n or l: as, learn, (learned) learnt; dwell, dwelt.

(2.) In some verbs whose root ends in d, preceded by 1, n, or r, the final d is simply changed to -t: as, build, (builded) built; send,

sent.

(3.) Some verbs shorten the root vowel and add -d or -t: as, flee, fled; feel, felt.

* It may be a useful distinction, in speaking of verbs irregular in the ordinary sense, to designate them by a name adopted by many modern grammarians, namely, verbs of the old, or strong, conjugation, and to call verbs of the -ed class verbs of the new, or weak, conjugation.

(4). Some verbs ending in d or t shorten the root vowel, but take no addition: `as, feed, fed; lead, led.*

(5.) Some verbs ending in d or t make no change whatever; as, cut, cut, cut.

Some verbs, such as-

leave, left;
lose, lost;

teach, taught;

buy, bought;

sell, sold;
tell, told;

and others of the like sort, though presenting marked departures from the type of the so-called regular verb, nevertheless belong originally to that conjugation, for the reason that the ed inflection is, substantially, found in them.

3. Strictly Irregular.-Verbs belonging, in the strict sense, to the irregular, old, or strong conjugation, have, in the text, been subdivided into the following classes:

CLASS 1.—Root-vowel modified for past, and -en or -n added for participle:

as

break

broke

broken

CLASS 2.-Root-vowel modified for past, and no suffix in participle: as

CLASS 3.-Regular in past; irregular in participle: as

show

4. Go — went — gone. — The past went is not formed from the root go, but is a contraction of wended, the past tense of the Anglo-Saxon verb wendan, to wend or go: thus, "He went his way" He wended his way.

5. Have—had—had. The past had is a contraction of the AngloSaxon haefde or haefed (past tense of habban, to have), and hence is equivalent to haved; accordingly, this verb belongs properly to the regular, or weak, conjugation.

6. Make-made-made.-Made is a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon macode (=maked), and the past participle is a contracted form of gemacod; so that "make" is originally a regular verb.

7. Double forms.-In the list on pages 245-249 will be found a considerable number of verbs of double form (redundant verbs), that is,

*Forms like lead, led are accounted for as follows: The Anglo-Saxon verb was læde (I lead), ledde (I led). As the Anglo-Saxon passed into modern English the final e ceased to be pronounced, and with it the additional d disappeared as useless.-Bain: English Grammar.

verbs that make their past and participle both regularly and irregularly: as

thrive,
dig,

thrived, or throve,
digged, or dug,

thrived, or thriven;
digged, or dug.

Of such pairs the irregular form is the older; but in the progress of language there is a constant tendency for the regular to displace the irregular form. Many verbs that are now conjugated solely in the regular way were at first irregular; then a secondary (regular) form appeared; and this at last wholly displaced the irregular form. Thus the now regular verb to heat had formerly het for its past tense; and to clothe had clad for its past tense, and yclad for its past participle.

New verbs introduced into our language are always conjugated in the regular manner: as, telegraph, telegraphed, telegraphed.

8. Drank or drunk, etc.—A considerable number of verbs with two irregular forms of the past are found. The present tendency of the language is to give the preference to the forms drank, sprang, began, etc., for the past, and use drunk, sprung, begun, etc., solely as past participles.

ORIGIN OF THE INFINITIVE WITH "TO."

To is not found in Anglo-Saxon before the nominative and accusative of the infinitive, and even in modern English it is not inserted after the following verbs: may, can, shall, will, dare, let, bid, make, must, see, hear, feel, do, need, and have. The cause of its later appearance may be thus explained. In Anglo-Saxon the infinitive was declined as follows: Nominative and accusative, writ-an, to write. Dative, to writ-ann-e, for writing.

When, in later times, the inflectional endings were lost, the origin of the separate forms write and to write was forgotten, and the preposition was inaccurately applied to all cases of the infinitive. The dative to writ-ann-e, by the omission of the case-ending, appears as to writ-an, and the nominative and accusative writ-an, in consequence of this accidental resemblance, improperly received the preposition to.

The nominative and accusative writ-an afterwards assumed the forms writ-en, writ-in, and finally writ-ing, and thus arose the form called the gerund. Hence the identity of meaning in writing and to write.