A Book of Middle English. J. A. Burrow
pl.
With the loss of ‐en and then of ‐e, the past tense is often unchanged throughout except for the ‐est of the second person singular of the indicative. In the North and the North Midlands the second person singular ends ‐es/‐ez, as in sendez, 8/415, or has ‐e or no ending so that there is one form throughout the past; e.g. second person singular þou me herde, 8/306, past participle (with ‘unhistorical’ ‐e) I haf herde, 9/26.
A few common verbs historically classed as weak not only add ‐t(e) in the past tense but also modify the stem itself. Most have survived into Modern English. Examples taken from the Gawain poems are:
| infinitive | pa. and pp. |
| bryng, ‘bring’ | broʒt |
| seche, ‘seek’ | soʒt |
| þenk, ‘think’ | þoʒt |
| þynk, ‘seem’ | þuʒt |
| worch, ‘work’ | wroʒt |
4.5.5 The Verbs ‘Have’ and ‘Say’
Two very common weak verbs show a great variety of dialectal forms. They are habben/haven, ‘have’, and seggen/sayen, ‘say’. Here for comparison are the forms in the language of the Ancrene Wisse and Gawain:
| Anc. W. | Gawain | Anc. W. | Gawain | ||
| infin. | habben | have | seggen | say | |
| pres. indic. | |||||
| sg. | 1 | habbe | haf, have | segge | saye |
| 2 | havest | habbes, hatz | seist | seggez, says | |
| 3 | haveð | habbes, hatz | seið | says, sayez | |
| pl. | habbeð | haf, haven, han, hatz | seggeð | sayn | |
| imp. sg. | have | haf | sei | say | |
| past indic. | |||||
| sg. | 1 | hefde | had(e) | seide | sayd(e) |
| 2 | hefdest | hadez | seidest | – | |
| 3 | hefde | had(e) | seide | sayd(e) | |
| pl. | hefden | hade(n) | seiden | sayden | |
| past ppl. | ihaved, ‐et | hade | iseid | sayd | |
4.5.6 Past of Strong Verbs
Strong verbs form their past tense by changing the stem vowel. In early texts a verb may exhibit as many as four different stem vowels: one in the infinitive and present tense, a second in the first and third persons singular of the past tense indicative, a third in the other forms of the past tense, and a fourth in the past participle. For example, in the language of the Ancrene Wisse, scheoten, ‘to shoot’:
| infin. | pa. 1 & 3 sg. | pa. pl. | pp. |
| scheoten | scheat | schuten | ischoten |
Gradually the two vowels of the past tense were reduced to one, sometimes settling on the stem vowel of the singular, sometimes on that of the plural; but this took place quite unsystematically, leaving doublet forms even in the same text: e.g. in Gawain there are the past tense plural forms ran and runnen. (Compare sunk and sank as alternative past tense forms in Modern English.)
The past tense of driven, ‘to drive’, in the language of the Ancrene Wisse:
| indicative | |||
| sg. | 1 | ich | draf |
| 2 | þu | drive | |
| 3 | he | draf | |
| pl. | we, ʒe, ha | driven | |
| subjunctive | |||
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sg.
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