Conjugation of Verbs

Present indicative

Person	Singular number		Plural number
	Early ME	Late ME	Early ME	Late ME
1	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
2	thou tell-est	you tell-e
3	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
1	I told-e, bǭnd	we you told(en), bound(en) they
2	thou told-est, bound-e
3	he told-e, bǭnd

3.8.5.1. 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.

3.8.6.1. 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
1	OE	wrītan	wrāt	writon	writen
	ME	writen	wrote	writen	writen
	NE	write	wrote		written
2	OE	cēosan	cēas	curon	coren
	ME	chesen	chees	chosen	chosen
	NE	choose	chose		chosen
3	OE	findan	fand	fundon	funden
	ME	finden	fand	founden	founden
	NE	find	found		found
4	OE	beran	bær	bǣron	boren
	ME	beren	bar	beren/bar	boren
	NE	bear	bore		born
5	OE	sp(r)ecan	sp(r)æc	spǣcon	specen
	ME	speken	spak	speken/spak	spoken
	NE	speak	spoke		spoken
6	OE	scacan	scōc	scōcon	scacen
	ME	shaken	shook	shoken	shaken
	NE	shake	shook		shaken
7	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 cēosan–cēas– curon–coren – ME chesen–chose–chosen), except the interchange of z-r in was-were.

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.