Weak Verbs

The group of weak verbs was more numerous than that of strong verbs. Their number was constantly growing since all new verbs derived from other stems were conjugated weak. Among weak verbs there were many derivatives of OE nouns and adjective stems [Rastorgueva, 2001].

OE talu n	tellan v	(NE tale, tell)
OE full adj.	fyllan v	(NE full, fill)

Weak verbs form their preterite tense and the past participle by means of a suffix containing d or t. These are the verbs with no stem-vowel changes in any tense. They are grouped into three classes:

1. To Class II belong verbs whose principal parts end in – ian, –ode, –od:

   Infinitive	Preterite	Past Participle
   lufian (love)	lufode	lufod
   rīcsian (rule)	rīcsode	rīcsod

2. To Class III belong only four verbs:

   secgan (say)	sægde	sægd
   habban (have)	hæfde	hæfd
   libban (live)	lifde	lifd
   hycgan (think)	hogde	(hogod)

3. All other weak verbs belong to Class I, with several subdivisions, e.g.

nerian (save)	nerede	nered
timbran (build)	timbrede	timbred
dēman (judge)	dēmde	dēmed
sellan (give)	sealde	seald
sēcan (seek)	sōhte	sōht
wyrcan (work)	worhte	worht

The personal endings of the Present Indicative are as follows [dēman (to judge); timbran (to build); lufian (to love); erian (plough), sēcan (seek)].

	1st	2nd
1.	–e	–ie	dēme	timbre	lufie	erie
2.	–(e)st	–ast	dēmst	timbrest	lufast	erest
3.	–(e)þ	–aþ	dēmþ	timbreþ	lufaþ	ereþ
1 – 3.	–aþ	–iaþ	dēmaþ	timbraþ	lufiaþ	eriaþ
			most of the weak verbs of Class I with a long root -syllable	some weak verbs of Class I (hyngran; seglan; frefran)	all weak verbs of Class II	all weak verbs of Class I ending in – ian

The personal endings of the Preterite Indicative of weak verbs are identical for the three classes:

1.	- e	lufode	dēmde	timbrede	erede	sōhte
2.	- est	lufodest	dēmdest	timbredest	erede	sōhtest
3.	- e	lufode	dēmde	timbrede	erede	sōhte
1 – 3.	-on	lufodon	dēmdon	timbredon	eredon	sōhton