NOTES AND REMARKS ON THE LIST OF VERBS.

(a) Beholden is used in a different sense. It means indebted, obligated, "Little are we beholden to your love."-Shak. This form, we think, is seldom employed in the current English of the present day.

(b) "In one red burial blent,"-Byron, as quoted by Mr. D'Orsey, to whom we are indebted for many of the examples introduced in these

notes.

(c) "The deer is broke."-Scott,

(d)

"Thou castedst them down into destruction."-Ps. 73: 18. (e) "Jacob chode with Laban."-Gen. 31: 36.

(ƒ) “The ground clave asunder.”—Numb. 16: 31.

(g) "Certain men clave unto him," &c.-Acts 17: 34.

(h) "So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold."-Milt.

(i) "Was clad with zeal."-Is. 59: 17.

(j) Dare to challenge has always the form of the mod. conjugation dared. (k) Drunken is most generally used adjectively. It was formerly sometimes used to form compound tenses. "Thou hast drunken the dregs," &c.— Is. 51: 17.

(7) There is, perhaps, a tendency in the use of this verb to prefer the form in ed. In speaking of suspension for the purpose of taking life, we now always use the form in ed, both as past tense and participle.

It

(m) The form lien is found in the early editions of the authorized version. may be found in the current editions in Gen. 26: 10. In other instances it has been replaced by lain. We suspect that lain is to be traced to a modern innovation-a change of fashion-in pronunciation (perhaps having some connection with the confusion of this verb with lay), which has come to be represented in the written form of the language. In Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Geneva version, the word is written lyne. These old forms retain the vowel sound of the root, which is not the case with lain. (n) Sunken is still sometimes used adjectively.

REMARK. (1) There are some verbs in the above list which neither belong properly to the ancient conjugation, nor are they contracted forms of the second. They, in fact, partake apparently of the character of both conjugations, since there is both a change of the vowel sound, and a t added in the formation. They really belong to the modern conjugation, and have been placed here because they differ from the usual forms of that conjugation, though they are not, properly speaking, contracted forms. We enumerate the chief of these verbs: beseech, besought; bring, brought; buy, bought; catch, caught; seek, sought; teach, taught; think, thought. To these we may add work, wrought, in which there is, besides the peculiarity common to the rest, a transposition.

REMARKS ON THE VERBS OF THE ANCIENT CONJUGATION.-In verbs of the ancient conjugation there is, as we have before observed, generally a change of the vowel sound. The changes which take place are chiefly the following:

1. (2) A few verbs of this conjugation form preterits by changing o into e. In most of these the o is followed by w, as blow, blew; crow,

§67. (1) Repeat the substance of the first remark, and name the verbs to which it ap

crew, &c. In like manner, hold and its compounds make held. Fall, fell, and draw, drew, having a vowel sound approaching that of o, may come within this class. Slay and fly have preterits similar to the verbs in ow, viz., slew and flew.

2. (3) The preterits of many verbs of this conjugation are formed by changing ea of the root into long o. Some of these have a second form in a. Example, speak, spoke, spake; bear, bore, bare.

3. (4) A few preterits are formed by changing a long into oo as, take, took, and its compounds. We may place here also stand, stood. Others change a long into o long, as, awake, awoke.

4. (5) The preterits of many verbs are formed by changing i löng into o long, as rise rose, &c.

5. (6) I short is usually changed into a short; as, swim, swam; sit, sat, &c. The short i in give is changed into the long sound of a, gave.. Many of the verbs have a second form in u; as, swim, swam, and swum; sing, sang, and sung. This second form seems to owe its origin to the fact that in Anglo-Saxon preterits, the vowel was often changed in forming the plural persons, and the second person singular; for example, they said in the singular, Ic sang, I sung; and in the plural, we sungon, we sung. In our language we have, in some instances, retained both forms, but use them indiscriminately, either as singular or as plural.

Nearly all the verbs of the ancient conjugation come within one or other of these classes. Get, got; bite, bit; beat, which is the same in the preterit, and perhaps a few other solitary forms, do not admit of classification.

(7) When the perfect participle has a form distinct from the past tense, it most generally consists of en or n added, sometimes, to the root, sometimes to the preterit form. This seems to have been the usual termination of the perfect participles of verbs of the ancient conjugation in Anglo-Saxon.

REMARKS ON THE CONTRACTED MODERN PRETERITS.-(8) These forms are generally easily accounted for, by a reference to the principles which govern the combination of sounds in language. (See §§ 40 and 41.)

1. (9) In a number of the words which we have marked contracted, there is rather a total defect of inflexion than contraction. This is

plies. (2) Describe the first class of the verbs of the ancient conjugation. (3) The second class of these verbs. (4) The third class. (5) The fourth class. (6) The fifth class; and tell how the second form of their preterits is accounted for. (7) Repeat the remark on the perfect participle of these verbs.

(8) What is said of the contracted modern preterits? (9) Describe the first class and

occasioned by the fact that the root ends in a d or t sound. To this no second d or t sound could be added without lengthening the word by one syllable. To this lengthening (though contrary to the natural tendency of our language to curtailment) we have submitted in some cases; for example, in add, added; print, printed, &c.; but, in other cases, rather than add a syllable, we have dispensed altogether with the inflexion peculiar to the preterit; for example, in cut, cost, hit, &c. (10) Sometimes a final d is changed into t in the preterit; as in bend, bent; spend, spent, &c. Sometimes the syllable is shortened in the preterit for the sake of distinction, as in bleed, bled; feed, fed; read, read; the root is pronunced long, the preterit short as if written red.

2. (11) Another class of these contracted forms has merely a t substituted for a d in their preterits, in accordance with the principle explained in § 40. In these the e which precedes the d in the usual inflexion is omitted, and the t is joined to the final consonant of the root; the vowel sound of the root is also usually shortened, because followed now by two consonants. Examples, dream, dreamt; sleep, slept; deal, dealt, &c. The verb cleave, which would naturally coalesce with the d sound, exchanges its v for an ƒ, and takes t like the rest of these contracts; cleave, cleft.

This last class is not to be considered irregular, since nothing has happened to them, except what follows necessarily from the laws which govern the utterance of sounds. The only really anomalous class of these verbs of the modern conjugation, is that considered under our first remark, viz., beseech, besought; catch, caught, &c.; and even the preterits of these are not so capriciously formed, as might seem at first sight. See more on this subject in Latham's English Language, from which we have borrowed largely in the preceding remarks.

The learner may be questioned in the usual way upon the list given above, asking him to tell the preterit and participle of each verb separately. A much more effectual way of learning these verbs thoroughly, is to write lists of the distinct classes in the manner which we prescribe below in the exercises.

EXERCISES I., II., III., &c.-Form a complete enumeration from the list of all the verbs of the ancient conjugation, coming under class 1, 2, 3, &c., and afterwards the same with the contracted forms of the

give examples. (10) What changes in sound do some of these undergo without receiving any additional inflexion? Give examples. (11) Describe the second class. Show how their preterits are formed, and give examples.