Old English/Verbs

Introduction: Introduction - Grammar - Orthography
Parts of speech: Nouns - Verbs - Pronouns - Adjectives - Adverbs - Participle - Gerund - Conjunctions - Prepositions

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Basic Verb Functions

Verbs tell you what a person is doing in a sentence, or what they are. They are either action verbs (do) or stative verbs (be/become).

Verb Agreement

Verbs have to agree with the subject of the sentence in number (singular/one or plural/more than one), and person (I, you, he/she/it). This is true also in modern English, but moreso for Old English

Modern English (go)		Old English (gān)
I go	we go	ic gā	wē gāþ
thou goest	ye go	þu gǣst	gē gāþ
he goes(eth)	they go	hē gǣþ	hīe gāþ

You can see here that there are four inflectional changes in Old English: the I-form, thou-form, he/she/it-form, and plural-form. This is true for all verbs excepting preterite-present, which lack the third-person plural ending, and the anomalous verb beon - be.

Verb Classes

There are several types of verbs in Old English, more than in Modern English, which has many weak (love/loved/loved), some strong (sing/sang/sung), and a few irregular verbs (be/was/been). Old English has four types of weak verbs, typically called Class 1a, Class 1b, Class 2, and Class 3. Strong verbs are typically arranged in seven classes, according to their vowel-changes (ablaut). All verbs do have the following in common: the infinitive ends in -an for nearly all verbs (a smaller portion end in -ian and -rian), the present participle ends in -ende (a smaller portion end in -iende), the present plural is always -aþ, and the inflected infinitive ends in -enne.

Weak Verbs

Weak verbs are often called regular verbs in most English texts, because they have a regular past tense in -ed, with very few exceptions. In Old English, these verbs were also the majority of verbs, most often derived from nouns, adjectives, and other verbs. While we can generalize across all classes, it will be easier to lay them out and allow the reader to see the similarities for themselves.

Weak Class 1a

Weak verbs in this class have either: doubled consonants or end in -rian. The actual number of -rian verbs is quite small, so it can be memorized without too much difficulty.

Present Tense

Indicative Mood

The regular indicative form of these verbs is indicated by fremman - to perform. Notice that the second m is dropped before þu and hē.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic	fremme	wē	fremmaþ
þu	fremest	gē	fremmaþ
hē	fremeþ	hīe	fremmaþ

And for the verb nerian - to save, the i is dropped in the exact same place as the doubled consonant is dropped.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic	nerie	wē	neriaþ
þu	nerest	gē	neriaþ
hē	nereþ	hīe	neriaþ

The endings of these verbs are: ic -e, þu -est, hē -eþ, wē/gē/hīe -aþ.

Subjunctive Mood

In the subjunctive mood, there is only a singular and a plural form. They are formed by taking the ic-form for the singular, and adding -n in the plural.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic/þu/hē	fremme	wē/gē/hīe	fremmen

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic/þu/hē	nerie	wē/gē/hīe	nerien

Past Tense

Indicative Mood

The regular indicative form of these verbs is indicated by fremman - to perform. Notice that the second m is dropped before adding the endings.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic	fremede	wē	fremedon
þu	fremedest	gē	fremedon
hē	fremede	hīe	fremedon

And for the verb nerian - to save, the i is dropped throughout.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic	nerede	wē	neredon
þu	neredest	gē	neredon
hē	nerede	hīe	neredon

The endings of these verbs are: ic -ede, þu -edest, hē -ede, wē/gē/hīe -edon. The past tense will drop the -i- and doubled consonant throughout.

Subjunctive Mood

In the subjunctive mood, there is only a singular and a plural form. They are formed by taking the ic-form for the singular, and adding -n in the plural.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic/þu/hē	fremede	wē/gē/hīe	fremeden

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic/þu/hē	nerede	wē/gē/hīe	nereden

Weak Class 2

Verbs in this class have infinitives ending in -ian. Almost any verb with -ian following a consonant other that r belongs to this class.

Present Tense

Indicative Mood

The regular indicative form of these verbs is demonstrated by lufian - to love. Notice that the vowel in the ending becomes a in the second and third-person singular indicative and imperative.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic	lufi(g)e	wē	lufiaþ
þu	lufast	gē	lufiaþ
hē	lufaþ	hīe	lufiaþ

Subjunctive Mood

The present subjunctive in the singular takes the form of the first-person singular indicative for all persons and in the plural uses the ending -ien.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic	lufi(g)e	wē	lufien
þu	lufi(g)e	gē	lufien
hē	lufi(g)e	hīe	lufien

Imperative Mood

The imperative mood in the singular takes the ending of -a and in the plural takes the form of the plural indicative for all persons.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic		wē	lufiaþ
þu	lufa	gē	lufiaþ
hē	lufa	hīe	lufiaþ

Past Tense

Indicative Mood

The preterite and past participle in this class is formed with -ode and -od rather than -ede and -ed.

Person/number	singular	Person	plural
ic	lufode	wē	lufodon
þu	lufodest	gē	lufode
hē	lufode	hīe	lufoden

Strong Verbs

These verbs, although smaller in number than the weak verbs, and sometimes called "irregular," are called strong verbs. They form the preterite through a type of inflection called "ablaut," where you change the internal vowel in the root of the verb.

References

• List of verbs with dative objects
• List of verbs with accusative objects
• List of verbs with dative or accusative objects