'Beat,' a partly exceptional verb, is placed here, because its oldest forms belong to the Seventh Class of Old Verbs in First English.

COMPOUND CONJUGATION.

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To form the First Future Tense of the Compound Conjugation, we add to the Helping Verbs of that Tense the Infinitive without the sign to. With the Helping Verbs of other Compound Tenses in the Indicative Mood, and for the Compound forms of the Infinitive Mood, we use the Perfect Participle. When the Verb tells us that the Subject acts, the Verb is used in the Active Voice.

The appended table gives forms and constructions required for translating into English the six Tenses in the Indicative Mood of a Latin Verb -Present, Past, Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Imperfect, Future Perfect.

OLD CONJUGATION-(Active Voice).

know

Any of the verbs 'bind,' 'come,' 'drive,' 'find,' 'give,' see,' strive,' 'take,' 'write,' may be used, instead of 'know,' for exercises.

The New Conjugation includes verbs belonging to the following classes:

(a) English verbs which, in the oldest known time, were conjugated with de as the ending of the Past Tense, and d as the ending of the Perfect Participle.

(b) English verbs which have been transferred from the Old Conjugation to the New. Ex.: ' climb,'' fare,' ' glide.' (c) Almost every Roman verb.

The verb 'strive' seems to be an exception. It belongs to the French estriver; but its earlier form (streben) is Teutonic, though no representative is found in E.I.

d or ed is added to the stem to form the Past Tense. Ex.: Past, it move-d;' we depart-ed.'

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ed, after the dentals d and t, is a distinct syllable. Ex.: ended,' 'parted.'

d keeps its own sound when the verb ends in a flat mute or in a vowel. Ex.: believ'd,' 'sooth'd,' 'prais'd.' When the verb ends in a sharp mute d takes the sound of t. Ex.: kept.'

Several modes of connecting the inflection d with the verb are seen in the Past forms of the following verbs :-' praise,' 'part,'' carry,'' remit,' 'rob.'

'Praise' takes the suffix d in the Past-'praised.' 'Part' requires ed to form the Past-'parted.'

'Carry' changes y to i, and adds ed in the Past—' carried.' 'Remit' doubles the final letter, and adds ed in the Past— ' remitted.'

Monosyllables ending in a single, short consonant, preceded by a single, short vowel, double the consonant, and add ed in the Past. Ex.: rob,' robbed.'

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Variations in the Forms of the New Conjugation are mostly made by contraction and assimilation. [See § 2, Sharp and Flat Sounds.']

Contraction means 'a drawing together' of syllables, so as to shorten the pronunciation of a word. The Past of 'stop' is 'stopp-ed,' which may be pronounced in two syllables, so as to keep the flat sound of d. But when the vowel e is dropped, and p and d come together, one must be made like the other-i.e. both must be sounded sharp or flat. If the sharp mute prevail, we have the pronunciation heard in 'stopt.' This natural process is called 'assimilation.' Contraction introduces assimilation, and assimilation often leads to a change of spelling. Hence we have such forms of the P. and P.P. as 'dropt,' stopt,' 'whipt,' 'blest,' 'past.' Nothing is said here to defend this mode of spelling.

VARIATIONS of Forms in the

mostly represented by the following 'lend, build,'' sell,'

'buy.'

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Present.

let

New Conjugation are words :- let,' meet,' 'sell,'' clothe,' 'keep,' 'pay,' 'bless,'

Past.

Perfect Participle.

let

let

The following verbs, placed here with 'let,' have only one form for the Present, the Past, and the Perfect Participle:

'Bid' (to offer a price), 'cast' 'cost,' 'cut,' 'hit,'' hurt,' 'put,' 'rid, 'set,' shed,' 'shred,' 'shut,' 'slit,' 'split,' 'spread,' 'thrust."

curves.

In the following lists some words still used more or less are placed within Obsolete words and others seldom heard, or having only special uses, are set in Italic and placed within brackets. Old forms of contracted verbs are given in * 20.

A second class is represented by the verb 'meet,' which has in its sound no change except the shortening of the vowel.

In popular use the prepositional verb 'light on' (= meet by chance) has for P. and P.P. lit on; but the compound alight' (= dismount) has ' alighted.' The stem lîht (= not heavy) is distinct from leôht (= bright), and from the Latin stem in 'deliter' (Old French), to which belongs 'delight' (in E.II. 'delit'). By the wear and tear' of time words belonging to several stems are often reduced to a formal identity.

Another class of verbs consists of such as cast off the stem consonant d and have t as the ending of the P. and the P.P. This class may be represented by the verb 'lend.'

'Wend' (to go, or to turn) is found, with its Past 'wended,' in poetry; but the form 'went' serves now as the Past of the verb 'go.' Shend' (= to ruin. or to disgrace), of which the P.P. is found in M.E., has the forms P. shent, P.P. shent.

Several forms of contraction are included in the following classification.

The verbs 'build' and 'gild' have hardly lost their complete forms for P. and P.P., but contracted forms of 'build' are generally employed.

'Wisdom hath builded her house.' (PROVERBS ix. 1.)

'Thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded.' (Ex. xii. 11.)

In the preceding two verbs ea (in E.I.) has been changed to long ō.

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Contractions and other variations of have' are numerous in E.II. In the form clad,' the P. and P.P. of clothe,' th has by assimilation been changed to d. In 'made' we have a contraction of the old form 'makede.'

Pr.

keep bereave

kěpt

P.P.

bereft (bereaved) reft

'And e'en his failings lean'd to virtue's side.' (GOLDSMITH.)