Point out how the past tense and perfect participle of the following
verbs are formed:—
=Present.= =Past.= =Perfect
Participle.=
wish, wished, wished.
love, loved, loved.
take, took, taken.
write, wrote, written.
A verb that forms its past tense and perfect participle by adding _ed_
or _d_ to the present tense form, is a verb of the =weak= or =new
conjugation=; as, _look_, _looked_, _looked_.
A verb that forms its past tense by changing the vowel of the present,
and its perfect participle by adding _n_ or _en_ to the present, is a
verb of the =strong= or =old conjugation=; as, _fall_, _fell_, _fallen_.
_Note._—Verbs of the old conjugation are called _strong_ because they
form their past tense within themselves. Verbs of the new conjugation
are called _weak_ because they form their past tense by the aid of an
additional syllable.
Weak verbs are called verbs of the _new_ conjugation because the method
of forming the past tense by the addition of _ed_ or _d_ is of more
recent origin than the method of the strong conjugation.
If we know the present tense form, the past, and the perfect participle
of any verb, we can tell to which conjugation it belongs, and can give
all its inflections of person, number, tense, and mode, therefore the
present tense form, the past and the perfect participle, are called the
_principal parts_ of the verb. When we give all the inflections of a
verb, or indicate them by the principal parts, we _conjugate_ it.
* * * * *
=LESSON XLIII.=