But the tendency to uniformity is so strong that many of these verbs have lost one or both of their peculiar forms, and others have two forms for the past indefinite and perfect participle. 21. The following is a complete list of these verbs, classified mainly by their present forms, yet not without regard to their original forms in the Anglo-Saxon. It must be observed that the original forms of many of these verbs are obsolete, or preserved in provincial usage only (and such forms are enclosed in parentheses); and that sometimes the past tense is used for the participle, and sometimes the termina! n or en has been dropped. First Division. Verbs which change their vowel sounds, and form their perfect participles by adding en or n, or strong verbs. 1st Class. Vowels e and a, becoming e, a, or o. Present Indef. Tense. Past Indef. Tense. Perfect Participle. Spring sprang, sprung (sprong) sprung Stick Get Help (holp, halp) helped molten, melted Swim (swang) swung (swong) swung Swink (swank, swonk) swink (swonk) swinkt Bid Eat Bear (bring forth) Sit Creep Bear (carry) Cleave (adhere) (clave) cleaved (clove, clave) cleft (crope) crept bore (bare) Slit borne won wrung bidden, bid given betid cloven, cleft betid hidden, hid (Falde) fold folded (folden) folded Slide slidden, slid abode Bite led Leap Chide Seethe (bote, bat) bit (chode) chid arisen bitten, bit chidden, chid Climb sodden (clomb, clamb) climbed climbed Shear Speak spoke (spake) (shore) sheared Dive shorn trode, trod, (trade) Wreak Wreathe Yield (Be) See Awake, wake Bake Forsake Grave (wope) wept (wroke) wreaked wreathed (yolde) yielded Smite (shrove) shrived smote (smate), smit shriven wept Stride (wroken) wreaked strode, strid wreathen, wreathed yielded smitten, smit stridden striven thriven Write been Lade Shake awoke (boke) baked forsook (grove) graved (lode) laded shook, shaked seen wrote (wrate) writ writhed written, writ, wrote writhen, writhed shone, shined Note. That by means of the various auxiliaries a great number of additional tenses, in all the moods, might be formed. Note also, that in the passive, the imperfect tenses cannot be formed except for a few verbs, and then only in the past and present, and in two ways-" the house is building," or "the house is being built;" "the books were printing,” or “were being printed." Formerly the first of these forms was different. Ex. The ark was a-preparing. 28. Adjectives.-There are no changes of forms in the adjectives, to show their relations to the nouns they qualify, as to gender, number or case. Hz. A wise man, wise men; a tall man, a tall woman, Sing. Sing. PERFECT. I have seen, Thou hast seen, He has seen. I had seen, I shall have seen, Thou shalt have seen, He shall have seen. (If) I have seen, (If) Thou have seen, (If) He have seen. (If) I had seen, (If) Thou hadst seen, (If) He had seen. PERFECT. I have been seen, Thou hast been seen, He has been seen. I had been seen, I shall have been seen, Thou shalt have been seen, He shall have been seen. (If) I have been seen, (If) Thou have been seen, (If) He have been seen. (If) I had been seen, (If) Thou hadst been seen, (If) He had been seen. Plur. We have seen, You have seen, They have seen. We had seen, You had seen, They had seen. We shall have seen, You shall have seen, They shall have seen. We have seen, You have seen, They have seen. We had seen, You had seen, They had seen To have seen, Seen Plur. We have been seen, You have been seen, They have been seen. We had been seen, You had been seen, They had been seen. We shall have been seen, You shall have been seen, They shall have been seen We have been seen, You have been seen, They have been seen. We had been seen, You had been seen, They had been seen. To have been seen. Having been seen. a tall tree; they saw the powerful king's golden crown; he defeated three great emperors' vast armies. But the degree of intensity in which any quality is regarded as characterizing one or more persons or things, when compared with others, is expressed by the addition of er (or r) and est (or st) to the simple (or positive) form of the adjective; the former (called the comparative degree) being employed where only two subjects are compared, the latter (named the superlative) when a subject is compared with more than one other in respect of the same quality. Ex. This tree is taller than that, but the next is the tallest of the three, and those trees are the tallest in the wood; this man is wiser than those and those men are the wisest in our country; platinum is the heaviest metal, or platinum is heavier than any other metal. Instead of using these inflexions, with adjectives of more than one syllable, the comparative is frequently formed by prefixing more, and the superla'tive by prefixing most, to the simple form. Ex. A more prudent man, the most prudent conduct; more seasonable weather, most unseasonable importunities. 29. Some adjectives are defective, or have comparatives and superlatives formed from other words; and some do not form them according to the common rule. The following are the principal adjectives to which these remarks apply:-- Another class of adjectives differ from the common rule in having a positive signification with the comparative form (as is the case with the comparatives, superior, inferior, exterior, and interior, borrowed from the Latin), and only a superlative degree of comparison beside. Ex. Former, foremost; hinder, hindmost, and hindermost; hither, hithermost; inner, inmost, and innermost; nether, nethermost; outer, outmost, and outermost; under, undermost; upper, upmost, and uppermost; utler, utmost, and uttermost. The following superlatives also occur: midmost for midst, nothernmost and southernmost. Different degrees of intensity are also more generally expressed by the use of some adverbs. Ex. Too hot, very cold, exceedingly angry. "Less" and "least" are employed when the comparison regards lower degrees of intensity. Ex. Less scrupulous, leist scrupulous. 30. Numerals.-When the cardinal numerals are employed to signify abstract numbers, they are nouns. Ex. Four and three are seven, two and one are three. But when used to express concrete quantities they are adjectives. Ex. Four horses, ten men, a hundred pounds. The ordinal numerals (which signify position in a series) are most frequently adjectives. Ex. The first man, the tenth sheep, the thirtieth day. Bu they are sometimes used objectively, and then are adverbs. Ex. He stands first, I am tenth on the list. There are also the regularly formed adverbial ordinal numerals, firstly, secondly, thirdly, &c. Fractional numerals are the same as ordinals, but they are nouns, and are so because they are abbreviations. Ex. One-third (for "one third part") three-fourths (for "three fourth parts"), four-fifths, two-tenths of an inch. In this series first is omitted, half is used for second, and quarter is often substituted for fourth. Beside these there are the reiterative numerals, once, twice, thrice, four times, &c.; the mu.plicatives, single, double or two-fold, triple or three-fold, quadruple or four-fold, &c.;-the distributives, singly or one by one, two by two, &c.; and other classes. The words neither, either, other, both, next, again, then, and some others, which are also called pronouns, are frequently employed as numerals, to signify not one, one, second, two, secondly, &c. Indeterminate numerals express number and quantity, but not definitely. They are such words as more, some, none, few, many, several, much, all, &c. 31. Pronouns.-Those which are used as nouns only, are the personal pronouns, I, thou, he, she, it, and their plurals. They are thus declined. The possessive cases of these pronouns are some times spoken of as a class by themselves, and called possessive (adjective) pronouns. In the first and second persons, the possessive cases, and in the third person, the objective cases, with self or selves affixed, constitute the reflective pronouns. Ex. Know thy self, he loves himself, they were ashamed of themselves. And these and the possessives are rendered emphatic by the insertion of own. Ex. "I scarcely coveted what was my own;" "Thou owest unto me even thine own self." |