Verbs have two voices. The _active_ represents the subject as acting, the
_passive_ as affected by the action. The _active_ has inflective endings
for many forms, the _passive_ only for a participle. Other passive forms
help this participle with the auxiliary verbs _eom_ (_am_), _beón_,
_wesan_, _weordhan_. There is, however, a middle voice, which represents
the subject as affected by its own action; but, as this is expressed in
Anglo-Saxon by adding pronouns, no paradigms are necessary.
There are six moods. The _indicative_ states or asks about a fact; the
_subjunctive_ a possibility; the _imperative_ commands or entreats; the
_infinitives_ (and _gerunds_) are substantives, and the _participles_
adjectives. Certain forms of possibility are expressed by auxiliary
modal verbs with the infinitive, and these are conveniently called a
_potential_ mode.
Five tenses, _present_, _imperfect_, _future_, _perfect_ and
_pluperfect_, are found in the language. The present and imperfect have
tense stems; the future is expressed by the present, or by the aid of
_seal_ (shall) or _wille_ (will); the perfect by help of the present of
_habban_ (have) or, with some intransitives, _beón_ (be), _wesan_ or
_weordhan_ (be); the pluperfect by the aid of the imperfect of _habban_,
_beón_, _wesan_, or _weordhan_.
Verbs are classified for conjugation by the stems of the imperfect tense.
_Strong verbs_ express tense by varying the root vowel; _weak verbs_ by
composition. Strong verbs in the imperfect indicative singular first
person have the root vowel _unchanged_, or changed by accent, which is
called _progression_, or by _contraction_ with old reduplication. There
are six conjugations. No change is manifest in the root vowel in the
first conjugation; the second, third and fourth are varied by accent or
progression; the fifth by contraction, and the sixth by composition.
Since all the names derivable from verbs, with which we have to deal in
the present work, are concerned with the present infinitive, present
indicative of the first person, and perfect participle, it is unnecessary
to enter into any elaboration of the verbal inflections. What is needful
to be said will appear in its proper place in the derivations.