_ie_ into _ay_.
Lie[34], lay, lien, or lain.
_o_ into _e_.
Hold, held, holden.
_o_ into _i_.
Do, did, done, i. e. doen.
_oo_ into _o_, _o_.
Choose, chose, chosen[35].
_ow_ into _ew_.
Blow, blew, blown.
Crow, crew, [crowed.]
Grow, grew, grown.
Know, knew, known.
Throw, threw, thrown.
_y_ into _ew_, _ow_.
Fly[36], flew, flown.
The following are Irregular only in the Participle; and that without
changing the vowel.
Bake, [baked,] baken[28].
Grave, [graved,] graven[28].
Hew, [hewed,] hewen, or hewn[28].
Lade, [laded,] laden.
Load, [loaded,] loaden[28].
Mow, [mowed,] mown[28].
Rive, [rived,] riven.
Saw, [sawed,] sawn[28].
Shave, [shaved,] shaven[28].
Shew, [shewed,] shewn[28].
Sow, [sowed,] sown[28].
Straw, -ew, or -ow, [strawed, &c.] strown[28].
Wax, [waxed,] waxen[28].
Some Verbs which change _i_ short into _a_ or _u_, and _i_ long into
_ou_, have dropt the termination _en_ in the Participle.
_i_ short into _a_ or _u_, _u_.
Begin, began, begun.
Cling, clang, or clung, clung.
Drink, drank, drunk, or drunken.
Fling, flung, flung.
Ring, rang, or rung, rung.
Shrink, shrank, or shrunk, shrunk.
Sing, sang, or sung, sung.
Sink, sank, or sunk, sunk.
Sling, slang, or slung, slung.
Slink, slunk, slunk.
Spin, span, or spun, spun.
Spring, sprang, or sprung, sprung.
Sting, stung, stung.
Stink, stank, or stunk, stunk.
String, strung, strung.
Swim, swam, or swum, swum.
Swing, swung, swung.
Wring, wrung, wrung.
In many of the foregoing the original and analogical form of the Past
Time in _a_, which distinguished it from the Participle, is grown quite
obsolete.
_i_ long into _ou_, _ou_.
Bind, bound, bound, or bounden.
Find, found, found.
Grind, ground, ground.
Wind, wound, wound.
That all these had originally the termination _en_ in the Participle,
is plain from the following considerations. _Drink_ and _bind_ still
retain it; _drunken_, _bounden_; from the Saxon, _druncen_, _bunden_:
and the rest are manifestly of the same analogy with these. _Begonnen_,
_sonken_, and _founden_, are used by Chaucer; and some others of them
appear in their proper shape in the Saxon; _scruncen_, _spunnen_,
_sprungen_, _stungen_, _wunden_. As likewise in the German, which is only
another off-spring of the Saxon: _begunnen_, _geklungen_, _getruncken_,
_gesungen_, _gesuncken_, _gespunnen_, _gesprungen_, _gestuncken_,
_geschwummen_, _geschwungen_.
The following seem to have lost the _en_ of the Participle in the same
manner:
Hang, hung, hung.
Shoot, shot, shot.
Stick, stuck, stuck.
Come, came, come.
Run, ran, run.
Win, won, won.
_Hangen_, and _scoten_, are the Saxon originals of the two first
Participles; the latter of which is likewise still in use in its
first form in one phrase; a _shotten_ herring. _Stuck_ seems to be a
contraction from _stucken_, as _struck_ now in use for _strucken_.
Chaucer hath _comen_ and _wonnen_: _becommen_ is even used by Lord
Bacon[37]. And most of them still subsist intire in the German;
_gehangen_, _kommen_, _gerunnen_, _gewonnen_.
To this third Class belong the Defective Verbs, Be, been; and Go, gone;
i. e. goen.
From this Distribution and account of the Irregular Verbs, if it be
just, it appears, that originally there was no exception whatever from
the Rule, That the Participle Præterit, or Passive, in English ends in
_d_, _t_, or _n_. The first form included all the Regular Verbs, and
those which are become Irregular by Contraction ending in _t_. To the
second properly belonged only those which end in _ght_, from the Saxon
Irregulars in _hte_. To the third, those from the Saxon Irregulars in
_en_, which have still, or had originally, the same termination.
The same Rule affords a proper foundation for a division of the English
Verbs into Three Conjugations, of which the three different Terminations
of the Participle might respectively be the Characteristics. The
Contracted Verbs, whose Participles now end in _t_, might perhaps be best
reduced to the first Conjugation, to which they naturally and originally
belonged; and they seem to be of a very different analogy from those
in _ght_. But as the Verbs of the first Conjugation would so greatly
exceed in number those of both the others, which together make but about
110[38]; and as those of the third Conjugation are so various in their
form, and so incapable of being reduced to one plain Rule; it seems
better in practice to consider the first in _ed_ as the only Regular
form, and the others as deviations from it; after the example of the
Saxon and German Grammarians.
To the Irregular Verbs are to be added the Defective; which are not only
for the most part Irregular, but are also wanting in some of their parts.
They are in general words of most frequent and vulgar use; in which
Custom is apt to get the better of Analogy. Such are the Auxiliary Verbs,
most of which are of this number. They are in use only in some of their
Times, and Modes; and some of them are a Composition of Times of several
Defective Verbs having the same signification.
Present. Past. Participle.
Am, or Be, was, been.
Can, could.
Go, went, gone.
May, might.
Must.
Ought, ought.
Quoth, quoth.
Shall, should.
Weet, wit, or wot; wot.
Will, would.
Wist, wist.
There are not in English so many as a Hundred Verbs, (being only the
chief part, but not all, of the Irregulars of the Third Class,) which
have a distinct and different form for the Past Time Active and the
Participle Perfect or Passive. The General bent and turn of the language
is towards the other form, which makes the Past Time and the Participle
the same. This general inclination and tendency of the language, seems
to have given occasion to the introducing of a very great Corruption;
by which the Form of the Past Time is confounded with that of the
Participle in these Verbs, few in proportion, which have them quite
different from one another. This confusion prevails greatly in common
discourse, and is too much authorised by the example of some of our best
Writers[39]. Thus it is said, _He begun_, for _he began_; _he run_, for
_he ran_; _he drunk_, for _he drank_: the Participle being used instead
of the Past Time. And much more frequently the Past Time instead of the
Participle: as, _I had wrote_, _it was wrote_, for _I had written_, _it
was written_; _I have drank_, for _I have drunk_; _bore_, for _born_;
_chose_, for _chosen_; _bid_, for _bidden_; _got_, for _gotten_; &c.
This abuse has been long growing upon us, and is continually making
further incroachments: as it may be observed in the example of those
Irregular Verbs of the Third Class, which change _i_ short into _a_
and _u_; as, Cling, clang, clung; in which the original and analogical
form of the Past Time in _a_ is almost grown obsolete; and, the _u_
prevailing instead of it, the Past Time is now in most of them confounded
with the Participle. The Vulgar Translation of the Bible, which is the
best standard of our language, is free from this corruption, except in
a few instances; as, _hid_ is used for _hidden_; _held_, for _holden_,
frequently: _bid_, for _bidden_; _begot_, for _begotten_, once or twice:
in which, and a few other like words, it may perhaps be allowed as a
Contraction. And in some of these Custom has established it beyond
recovery. In the rest it seems wholly inexcusable. The absurdity of it
will be plainly perceived in the example of some of these Verbs, which
Custom has not yet so perverted. We should be immediately shocked at
_I have knew_, _I have saw_, _I have gave_, &c: but our ears are grown
familiar with _I have wrote_, _I have drank_, _I have bore_, &c. which
are altogether as barbarous.