Re: irregularities

hi !

weak verbs keep the stem-vowel in all the three forms:
Infinitiv,Präteritum,Partizip Perfekt.

strong verbs dont keep the stem-vowel in all the three forms:
Infinitiv,Präteritum,Partizip Perfekt.

"bringen - brachte"
and
"denken - dachte"

are both strong verbs for me.
i heard nothing about "irregular" verbs, perhaps its a synonym for
strong verbs?

regards,
c.s.

AJ> Sally Caves wrote:
>> > If I remember my numbers correctly, English has 168 irregular verbs. And
>> > those are just the ones we use *now*. There are all sorts of archaic
>> > irregulars that are no longer used but heavily attested.
>> >
>> > My favorite irregular series in English:
>> >
>> > think-thought
>> > bring-brought
>> > buy-bought
>> > work-wrought (the old usage)
>>
>>Some of these are actually curious formations of the *weak* verb.
>>Thencan /thohte are what they call "verbs without middle vowels."
>>They are Class I weak verbs that show ablaut change in the
>>preterite and past participle but because of the change of
>>c/g before d to "ht" they exhibit a modified version of the
>>dental ending.
>>
>>You know, "irregular" verbs is a modern concept.  These
>>verbs, with the exception of the above, were made from
>>Germanic "strong verbs," the prevalent form then (with
>>ablaut change to express the preterite and PP).  Weak
>>verbs, which became our "regular" verbs, were the ones
>>formed by a dental ending.  By analogy, a lot of our strong
>>verbs went weak:  "helpan, healp, hulpen, holpen" -- help
>>helped helped.
>>
>> > I like them primarily because they are so transparently cognate with
>>German:
>> >
>> > denken-dachte-gedacht
>> > bringen-brachte-gebracht
>> > (kaufen and arbeiten are no longer part of the series)
>>
>>Because of the same formation in proto-Germanic.
>>
>> > I think that I'll add a web page about irregular verbs in English and
>> > German when I've got the time.
>>
>>Hope this information helps you.  It would be best to talk
>>about strong and weak verbs rather than "regular" and
>>"irregular."
AJ> Hm, when I read German (approx 1995-2000), we were taught to refer to verbs
AJ> like _denken_ and _bringen_ as "irregular". The term "strong" was reserved
AJ> for verbs like _kommen_ and _helfen_ (that keep the stem consonants
AJ> unchanged in inflected forms).

AJ> What were our Germans on the list told about this in their schools?

AJ>                                                   Andreas
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regards,
c.s.

  "it's harder to simplificate complex things
   - without losing a a piece of meaning -
   than complicating simple things."

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