Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English

Past Indicative

Number	Person	Old English	Middle English	Early New English
Singular	1	īc ēode	i(ch) wente	I went
	2	þū ēodest	thou wentest	–
	3	hē ēode	he wente	he went
Plural	1, 2, 3	wē, ʒē, hīe ēodon	we, ye, they wenten	we, you they went

3.8.6.5. Rise of Analytical Forms

The most important feature of the verb in ME is the development of analytical forms to express new grammatical meanings.

The growth of analytical forms of the verb is not only the peculiarity of English but also a common Germanic tendency. The beginning of these changes lies in Late OE and in ME. The development of analytical forms was a long and complicated process, which extended over many hundred years and included several kinds of changes.

Future Forms

There were only two tenses in OE: present and past. The present tense denoted both present and future actions, depending on the context. With verbs of perfective meaning or with adverbs of future the present forms acquired the meaning of futurity. Future actions could also be denoted by verb phrases with modal verbs sculan, willan, maʒan, cunnan, etc. e.g. forþǣm ʒē sculon wēpan (therefore you shall weep).

The analytical future developed from two free syntactic combinations: sculan and willan + infinitive.They weakened their modal meanings to such an extent that the word combination denoted mere future. We observe isolated instances of both combinations without any modal shades of meaning as early as OE. In ME after the 12-th c. such instances become much more common, especially with shal + infinitive, which makes it possible to regard the combination as a new analytical form of the future. In the XIV and XV cc., the verb will increases its frequency as well, and in Early NE it becomes another auxiliary of the future. The conversion of the modals shall and will into the future auxiliaries was possible due to their meaning: the notion of wish (will) and the notion of obligation (shall) are very often associated with the idea of future. Simultaneously shal and will went on functioning as modal verbs. Thus, in ME shal and will split into two homonymous sets of forms: modals and future tense auxiliaries. The discrimination of these forms poses difficulties even in ModE.

The contracted form -’ll emerged in the 17-th c. mostly with will and later extended to shall.

In 1653 John Wallis formulated the rule about the regular interchange of shall and will depending on the context (shall for the 1-st person, will for the 2-nd and 3-rd persons).This differentiation became a mark of the British Standard. Will has ousted shall completely in American English and together with -’ll is now ousting the auxiliary shall from British English, which may be regarded as a tendency towards further simplification.

With the rise of analytical forms the sphere of the present tense was, accordingly, narrowed, though it could still be used in some future environments, namely in clauses of time, condition and concession. ModE usage of the type «if you see him tomorrow» goes back to OE and ME present forms with future meaning.

The inclusion of the future tense form into the verb paradigm has transformed the category of tense: nowadays it consists of three members: present, past and future.