Minor Groups of Verbs. Verbs 'wesan', 'gan', 'don', preterite-present verbs).

Minor groups of verbs in OE.

Among them the most important group:

1)Preterite – present verbs.

Originally the Present Tense forms of these verbs were Past tense forms. Later these forms acquired a present meaning but preserved many formal features of the Past tense. Most of these verbs had new Past tense forms built with the help of the dental suffix. Some of them also acquired the forms of the verbals: Participles and infinitives. Most verbs didn’t have a full paradigm and were in this sense “defective”.

The verbs were inflected in the Present like the Past tense of strong verbs: the forms of the 1st and 3rd person sing. Unlike strong verbs had the same root-vowel in all the persons; the plural had a different grade of ablaut similarly with strong verbs. In the Past the preterite-presents were inflected like weak verbs: the dentak suffix + the endings –e, -est,-e. In OE there were 12 preterite-present verbs. 6 of them have survived in modern E. (cunnun, sceal, mazan:ought, may, must). Most of the Preterite-presents did not indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action, denoted by another verb-an infinitive which followed the preterit-present. They were used like modal verbs and eventually developed into modern modal verbs.

Among the verbs of the minor groups:

-anomalous verbs with irregular forms(willan – the meaning of volition and desire, indicated an attitude to an action and was often followed by an infinitive.

2 OE verbs were suppletive (OE zān, bēon=be)

Preterite-present verbs

The preterite-present verbs are a class of verbs which form the present like the past of a strong verb, and the past like the past of a weak verb. These verbs derive from perfect tense verbs that have accuired a present meaning. For example, witan, "to know" comes from verb which originally meant "to have seen." As a result of this history, the present singular is formed from the first preterite stem, and the present plural from the second preterite stem.