> On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 2:21 PM, Douglas Koller <laokou@...> wrote:
> > From: Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
> >
> > > Welcome to the world of preterite-presents.
> >
> > Well, that's the first time I've heard them called that.
>
> I don't remember where I picked up that term, but Wikipedia knows of
> it (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preterite-present_verb ).
>
> > Kinda sorta makes sense, though what *we* learned as "modal auxiliaries"
> plus "wissen" change their vowel in the present as you move from sing. to
> pl., whereas strong verbs in the preterite do not.
>
> True. Though apparently more accurate wording is "...whereas strong
> verbs in the preterite no longer do"; at least, if I understand this
> bit from the WP article correctly: "In the older stages of the
> Germanic languages (Old English, Middle High German) the past tense of
> strong verbs also showed different ablaut grades in singular and
> plural."