Adam
English verbs - archaic forms Hello guys, could anyone explain me how did english verbs suffixes work? I'm talking about -eth, -est suffixex (fx. thinketh, thinkest). I've figured out that in second person they used "-est" suffix and in third person "-eth" suffix. I've tried to learn it further, but didn't find much. Do you know how did it work for example for irregular verbs or in the past/future? Thanks!
Mar 3, 2016 9:31 PM
Answers · 6
2
Interesting question. The reason why you didn't find much in the way of past or future (aspect, since the verb itself doesn't take a specific ending for the future) and other forms is because they haven't changed "a lot" from Middle English at least to Modern English. It would also depend on what dialect of ME/EME..the ones you describe are those of the more mid and southern England. In addition to those ones you has -es(t)(th), for second, and third, plural no ending or (-es, -e(n)), dialect variety or no difference. So the reason you didn't find much more beyond this is because that is all that changes for the most part. So english verbs go into two classes weak verbs (three in Old English) and strong verbs. Weak verbs (ending change only) in the past tense you add -de/te. similar to english today. I walk, i walked, I send, I sent basically the same. Or the reason why I can say I google versus I googled because they are weak verbs. Strong verbs aka irregular verbs are changed via an ablaut which is a change in vowel (a germanic characteristic). So "see" the vowel is upper front or long-i to "saw" mid back vowel. This hasn't changed since OE, perhaps here and there but all verbs that use ablaut are true English words. *go - went is highly irregular but they come from two different words for "go". gān was the OE one, and wendan OE. Go had various past tenses but wende formed into went, and since southern English became the standard so "went" is now past of go. (I'm leaving out a lot but if you do some quick googling on the verb go you can find more information) The future was formed similar to modern English, with Shall and Will (along with their own endings similar), but had different meanings.. Will meant something with a desire or wish. I will see the movie (I want to see the movie) versus shall without the desire. So, I shall see the movie (I'm going to see the movie), there was no "to go" as a future sense back in middle english. Hope that helps!
March 3, 2016
2
There isn't more to learn, the 2nd person (familiar, thee/thou) and 3rd person singular were the only verb conjugations with endings. The future auxiliary "shall" (I think used to be spelled "scall" -- not sure) used to indicate a concrete, real event while "will" was used for potential, probable, or wished-for events in the future. These distinctions have disappeared and "shall" is falling out of use. The past tense was the same situation as today, where the normal -ed ending existed alongside the vowel-changing verbs (sing / sang / sung). Many of the verbs that end in -ed today used be vowel-changing because that was the Anglo-Saxon morphology. I only know this because many of these forms existed in Shakespeare's time ;-)
March 3, 2016
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!