Although Middle English has more inflections than Modern English, if you look back at the Old English inflections, you\u2019ll see that the system is relatively simple. There are, of course, irregular verbs, but for the most part, verbs in the present tense add the following endings to the stem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the past tense, it is necessary to begin by making a distinction, which still applies in Modern English, between strong and weak verbs. Strong verbs form the past tense by changing their stem (I sing, I sang; you throw, you threw), while weak verbs add a suffix to the stem (I wish, I wished; you laugh, you laughed). In the past tense in Middle English, strong verbs change their stems (sing<\/em> becomes sang<\/em> or song<\/em>) and add \u2013e in the second person singular (thou songe<\/em>), and \u2013en in the plural (they songen<\/em>). Weak verbs add \u2013de<\/em> or \u2013te<\/em>, so here <\/em>becomes herd<\/em>e and fele<\/em> becomes felte<\/em>; the second person singular takes the ending \u2013st (thou<\/em> herdest<\/em>) and plural forms take \u2013n (they<\/em> felten<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This table shows the conjugations for the weak verb hopen<\/em>, the strong verb binden<\/em>, and for ben<\/em> the verb \u2018to be\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Notice that the past participle of both strong and weak verbs can add a y- prefix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Certain verbs often appear as impersonal constructions, using the third person neuter singular verb with the object form of the personal pronoun. These are usually translated into a more direct form: hym thynketh<\/em>, \u2018It seems to him\u2019 or \u2018he thought\u2019 (MT 3615); hem leste<\/em>, \u2018it pleased him\u2019 (MT3421); me reweth<\/em>, \u2018I regret\u2019 (MT3462), literally: \u2018it rues [saddens] me\u2019). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few commonly used constructions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes personal pronouns and verbs are merged into a single word: hast thow,<\/em> \u2018have you?\u2019, becomes hastow<\/em> (MT 3534); and likewise in the negative: ne wiste<\/em>, \u2018did not know\u2019 becomes nyste<\/em> (MT 3414); ne wolde<\/em>, \u2018did not wish\u2019, becomes nolde<\/em> (MT 3122).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although Middle English has more inflections than Modern English, if you look back at the Old English inflections, you\u2019ll see that the system is relatively simple. There are, of course, irregular verbs, but for the most part, verbs in the present tense add the following endings to the stem: With the past tense, it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"parent":1034,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-445","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2260,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/445\/revisions\/2260"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/chaucer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/th> <\/th> Weak<\/strong>:<\/th> Strong:<\/strong><\/th> to be<\/em><\/strong><\/th><\/tr> Infinitive:<\/strong><\/th> <\/th> hopen<\/th> binden<\/th> been<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Present:<\/strong><\/td> <\/td> <\/td> <\/td> <\/td><\/tr> 1st person<\/td> I<\/td> hope<\/td> binde<\/td> am<\/td><\/tr> 2nd person<\/td> thou<\/td> hopest<\/td> bindest<\/td> art<\/td><\/tr> 3rd person<\/td> he\/she\/it<\/td> hopeth<\/td> bindeth<\/td> beth<\/td><\/tr> plural<\/td> we\/you\/they<\/td> hope(n)<\/td> binden<\/td> ben<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n<\/th> <\/th> Weak:<\/th> Strong:<\/th> to be<\/em><\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Past<\/strong>:<\/td> <\/td> <\/td> <\/td> <\/td><\/tr> 1st person<\/td> I<\/td> hoped<\/td> bond<\/td> was<\/td><\/tr> 2nd person<\/td> thou<\/td> hopedest<\/td> bounde<\/td> were<\/td><\/tr> 3rd person<\/td> he\/she<\/td> hoped(e)<\/td> bond<\/td> weren<\/td><\/tr> plural<\/td> we\/you\/they<\/td> hoped(e)(n)<\/td> bounde(n)<\/td> weren<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nPast Participle<\/strong>:<\/td> (y)hoped<\/td> (y)bounde(n)<\/td> (y)been<\/td><\/tr> Imperative (singular):<\/strong><\/td> (y)hope<\/td> binde<\/td> be<\/td><\/tr> Imperative (plural)<\/strong>:<\/td> hopeth<\/td> bindeth<\/td> be\/beth<\/td><\/tr> Subjunctive<\/strong>:<\/td> hope<\/td> binde<\/td> be\/were<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Impersonal Constructions <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Contractions <\/h2>\n\n\n\n