OLD ENGLISH VERBS

STRONG VERBS
Verbs known as "strong" are those which form their preterite (past) tenses by means of a change
in the stem-vowel, often according to i-mutation. Many of these changes still exist in modern
English, reflected in verbs such as sing (past tense sang, past participle sung).
There are seven classes of strong verb in Old English. Each class has a different vowel-change
sequence (though confusingly, there are three sub-classes of Class 3).
Class 1
ī‧ā‧i‧i
eg scīnan, 1st pret scān, pret pl scinon, past ppl scinen

Class 2
ēo/ȳ ‧ ēa ‧ u ‧ o
eg ċēosan, 1st pret ċēas, pret pl curon, past ppl coren

Class 3
a. i ‧ a ‧ u ‧ u
eg bindan, 1st pret band, pret pl bundon, past ppl bunden

b. e/eo ‧ ea ‧ u ‧ o
eg helpan, 1st pret healp, pret pl hulpon, past ppl holpen

c. e ‧ æ ‧ u ‧ o
eg breġdan, 1st pret bræġd, pret pl bruġdon, past ppl broġden

Class 4
e/i ‧ æ ‧ ǣ ‧ o
eg beran, 1st pret bær, pret pl bǣron, past ppl boren
Class 5
e/i ‧ æ ‧ ǣ ‧ e
eg cweþan, 1st pret cwæþ, pret pl cwǣdon, past ppl cweden

Class 6
a/æ/e ‧ ō ‧ ō ‧ a
eg standan, 1st pret stōd, pret pl stōdon, past ppl standen
Class 7
ea ‧ ēo/ē ‧ ēo/ē ‧ ea
eg healdan, 1st pret hēold, pret pl hēoldon, past ppl healden

WEAK VERBS
Weak verbs are more predictable. They form their preterite (past) tense by adding –d- before the
conjugation endings. This is the root of the common English past-tense suffix –ed. Weak verbs
are often formed from nouns, or are in general "newer" words.
There are three classes of weak verb.

Class 1
Class 1 weak verbs have an infinitive ending in -an or -rian. Third-person present singular ends
in -eþ, and present plural ends in -aþ.

Class 2
Class 2 weak verbs have an infinitive ending in -ian (except -rian, above). Their third-person
present singular ending is -aþ, like Class 1 plurals. Class 2 present plurals end in -iaþ.

Class 3
Class 3 weak verbs are more unpredictable, and often combine features of the first two weak
classes. There are only four Class 3 verbs: habban, libban, secgan and hycgan.