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Singular.

1. If I had been.

Past Perfect Tense.

Plural

1. If we had been.

2. If thou hast been, if you had been. 2. If ye or you had been. 3. If they had been.

3. If he had been

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3. If he shall or will have been. 3. If they shall or will have been. The Potential forms are converted into the Subjunctive by prefixing if or some similar Conjunction. See § 271.

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You might, could, would, or should have been.

3. He might, could, would, or should 3. They might, could, would, or should

2.

have been.

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INFINITIVE MODE.

Present, To be.

Present Perfect, To have been.

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THE STRONG OR ANCIENT CONJUGATION.

§ 291. VERBS of the Strong Conjugation form their Past (or Preterite) Tense by simply changing the Vowel. Thus Sang is formed from Sing by changing i into a; fell (the past tense) from fall, the present, by changing the a into e. They are called Strong, because the preterite is thus formed independently from within themselves, without any addition. Verbs like fill are called Weak, because they require the aid of addition from without to the present, to form the preterite; as, Fill, filled. Here the addition of the sound of d is necessary. See § 299.

§ 292. Verbs of the Strong Conjugation form their Part1ciple Passive by the addition of -en, generally accompanied by a change of vowel; as, Speak, spoken. Sometimes the -en, in the present language, is omitted; as, Find, found. In all these cases it must especially be remembered that this rejection of the -en occurs in the later stages of our language. In words like found the original participle was funden, and so on throughout. In many cases both forms occur; as, drink; participle drunken or drunk.

§ 293. The vowel of the Participle is often, though not always (took, taken), the same as the vowel of the past tense; as, Spoke, spoken. When this is the case, and when, at the same time, the -en (or -n) is rejected, the past tense and the participle passive have the same form; as, I found; I have found. In this case it seems as if the past tense were S

used for the participle. Now it is only in a few words, and in the most modern forms of our language, that this is really done; as, Hold, present; held, past; holden, obsolete past; held, past. The participle is naturally formed independent of the preterite.

The Participles Passive are exhibited in the fourth and fifth columns of the ensuing list. The fourth column contains the full participles in -en (many of which are more or less obsolete); the fifth those where the n is omitted. The asterisk (*) denotes that those words are more or less obsolete. The note of interrogation (?) denotes that it is matter of doubt whether the word to which it is attached be suf ficiently established by usage.

§ 294. The Past Tenses of the strong verbs are exhibited in the second and third columns of the ensuing list, the second column being appropriated to those that have two forms. The asterisk (*) denotes that the word to which it is attached is obsolete. The letter p stands for plural, and it is supposed that the forms by the side of which it appears are derived from the plural forms, as exhibited in § 257, or from (what is the same thing) those of the second person singular, as exhibited in the same section.

Several strong verbs have two forms of the past tense; as, Spake, spoke; sang, sung. Some of these double forms are capable of explanation.

See § 257.

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Here the sound of o is changed into that of ě.

Here must be noticed the natural tendency of a to become o, since the forms in the Anglo-Saxon are, Ic fealle, I fall; Ic feoll, I fell; Ic healde, I hold; Ic heold, I held.

SECOND CLASS.

Here the Preterite ends in ew.

Words of this class are

distinguished from those of class iii. by the different form of

the Present Tense. In these words the w has grown out of a g, as may be seen from the Anglo-Saxon forms. The word See, Anglo-Saxon geseah, belongs to this class.

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Thrown,

Here an o before w in the Present becomes e before w in the Preterite.

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Let.

In the Anglo-Saxon the Present form was Ic late, the Preterite Ic lét.

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Beaten,

In Anglo-Saxon the forms Io beate, Ic beot.

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Beat.

Come.

Overcome.

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