The potential forms are converted into the subjunctive by prefixing if, or some similar conjunction. See Section ccCXXXIV.

2. Thou mayest, canst, or must be (you 2. Ye may, can, or must be (you may, can,

1. I might, could, would, or should have 1. been.

2. Thou mightest, couldst, wouldst, or shouldst have been (you might, could, would, or should have been).

2.

Plural.

We might, could, would, or should have been.

Ye might, could, would, or should have been (you might, could, would, or should have been).

3. He might, could, would, or should have 3. They might, could, would, or should been.

have been.

PRESENT, To be. 32 [ENG. LANG, 14.]

Infinitive Mode.

PRESENT PERFECT, To have been.

SECTION CCCXLVIII.—THE ANCIENT OR STRONG CONJUGATION.

Verbs of the ancient or strong conjugation form their past (or preterit) tense by simply changing the vowel. Thus sang is formed from sing by changing i into a; fell (the past tense) from fall, the present, by changing the a into e. They are called strong, because the preterit is thus formed independently from within itself, without any addition. Verbs like fill are called weak, because they require the aid of addition from without to the present, to form the preterit; as, fill, filled. Here the addition of the sound of d is necessary. See Section CCCLVI.

1. Verbs of the ancient conjugation form their participle passive; by the addition of -en, generally accompanied by a change of vowel; as, speak, spoken. Sometimes the en, in the present language, is omitted; as, find, found. In all these cases it must especially be remembered that this rejection of the -en occurs in the later stages of our language. In words like found the original participle was fûnden, and so on throughout. In many cases both forms occur; as, drink; participle drunken or drunk.

2. The vowel of the participle is often, though not always (took, taken), the same as the vowel of the past tense; as, spoke, spoken. When this is the case, and when, at the same time, the -en (or -n) is rejected, the past tense and the participle passive have the same form; as, I found; I have found. In this case it seems as if the past tense were used for the participle. Now, it is only in a few words, and in the most modern forms of our language, that this is really done; as, hold, present; held, past; holden, obsolete past; held, past. The participle is naturally formed independently of the preterit.

3. The participles passive are exhibited in the fourth and fifth columns of the ensuing list. The fourth column contains the full participles in -en, the fifth those where the n is omitted. The obelisk (†) in this and the other columns denotes that those words are more or less obsolete. The note of interrogation (?) denotes that it is matter of doubt whether the word to which it is attached be sufficiently established by usage.

4. The past tenses of the ancient verbs are exhibited in the second and third columns of the ensuing list, the second column being appropriated to those that have two forms. The letter p stands for plural; and it is supposed that the forms by the side of which it

appears are derived from the plural forms, as exhibited in Section CCCXXIV., or from (what is the same thing) those of the second person singular, as exhibited in the same section.

Several ancient verbs have two forms of the past tense; as, spake, spoke; sang, sung. Some of these double forms are capable of explanation. See Section CCCXXIV.

OBSOLETE FORMS.-Instead of lept, slept, mowed, and snowed, we find, in the provincial dialects and in the older writers, the strong forms lep, slep, mew, snew, &c. Here there are two forms, and each form is of a different conjugation.

DOUBLE FORMS.-In lep and mew we have two forms, of which only one is current. In swoll and swelled, in clomb and climbed, and in hung and hanged, we have two forms, of which both are current. These latter are true double forms, of which there are two kinds : 1. Those like swoll and swelled, where there is the same tense, but a different conjugation. 2. Those like spoke and spake, where the tense is the same and the conjugation the same, but where the form is different.