I.Strong Verbs.

Strong verbs formed their main forms by means of changing the root vowel. This phenomenon (the phenomenon of changing the root vowel) is called gradation – (аблаут). In other words S. V-bs formed their main forms by means of the vowel gradation in the stem. The gradation was common to all IE languages, but only in Germanic languages gradation was used as a morphological means of building main forms of verbs. There were 4 main forms in OE-

Infinitive - I form

Past (singular) – II form

Past (plural) - III form

Participle II – IV form

Strong Verbs had 7 classes. The class of the strong verbs depended on the complicator. A complicator is a phoneme that follows the root vowel.

First Five Classes of Strong Verbs Table 1

Main Forms

Class	Complicator	I	II	III	IV
1	I	Ridan	Rad	Ridon	Riden
2	U =			Curon	Coren
3	Sonant+cons.	Helpan	H־ealp	Hulpon	Holpen
4	Sonant	Beran	bær	b־æron	Boren
5	Noisy cons.	Stredan	træd	trædon	Treden

As you see from this table the strong verbs of the first class have the complicator /i/ -OE strong verbs of the first class are:

risan ( вставать) ras – rison – risen

bidan (жить)

bitan (кусать)

glidan (скользить)

writan (писать)

scinan (сиять)

OE strong verbs of the 2 nd class have the complica-tor –u-

drosan (падать) dreas – druron –droren

freosan (замерзать) freas – fruron – froren

drepan (ка́пать) dreap – drupon - dropen

OE strong verbs of the 3 class have the complicator which consists of a sonant plus a consonant:

Climban cleamb – clumbon – clomben

Drincan dreanc – druncon – droncen

Winnan weann – wunnon – wonnen

OE strong verbs of the 4h class (sonant) have the complicater – (sonant) –

stelan stæl – stælon – stolen

helan hæl – hælon – holen

teran tær – tæron - toren

OE strong verbs of the 5 class (noisy consonants)

etan (питаться) æt - ton -ēten

metan

lesan (собирал)

except the main 7 classes of verbs there were some more special groups of strong verbs. They formed their main forms by means of other linguistic phenomenon, not by gradation.

II. Weak Verbs

Weak Verbs formed their main forms by means of dental suffix. Weak Verbs had three classes. Weak verbs of the 1^st and the 2^nd classes were formed from nouns, adjectives and some strong verbs.

Ex. “deman” was formed from the noun “dom” – суждение

“fyllan”- adj. “full” (полный)

The 3d class of weak verbs included only 3 verbs

	Past Singular	Past Plural
habban (have)	hæfde	hæfd
seczan	sæzde	sæzd [g]
libbon(live)	lifde	lifd

The first class of the weak verbs formed Past Tenses and P.II by means of the suffix – “d”, it was added to the root, if the root vowel was long.

dēman – demd – demed (судил)

But if the root vowel was short the suffix “d” was added by means of the vowel “e”.

fremman – fremede – fremed

Among the weak verbs of the first class there was a group of irregular verbs, which had changing of vowels and consonants in their main forms.

Ex. of these irregular verbs :

tellan – teald – teald (tell)

sellan – sealed – seald (sell)

bencan –bohte – boht (think)

The second class of weak verbs formed Past Tenses and PII by means of dental suffix plus vowel “o”.

Ex. lufian – lufode – lufod (love)

metian – metode –metod (supply)

lōcian – lōcode – locode (look)

Infinitive	Past	Participle
1^st class deman 2^nd class babian 3^rd class secgan	dēmde babode sæzde	dēmed babod sæzd

The predominant part of the OE verbs was weak verbs. The number of strong verbs started reducing even in OE period. In ME period some strong verbs became weak verbs. Some of them died out.

III. Preterite - Present Verbs - the third class of OE verbs

These verbs formed their main forms by means of the vowel gradation in the stem in Present Simple and by means of dental suffix “d”(t, ) in Past

Simple

Ex: Infinitive Pr. Singular Pr. Plural Past

(дать) unnan ann unnon ub

(иметь) ozan ־az azon ahte

In ME preferite-present verbs correspond to modal verbs, but in OE they expressed other meaning too.