Chapter 18: Preterite-Present Verbs
A few Old English verbs (unfortunately they are important and rather common) combine features of strong verbs and weak verbs.
These verbs take what would normally be a strong verb past tense (also called a preterite) and transfer it to the present tense. They then build a weak verb paradigm upon that strong verb present tense.
This sounds confusing, but makes sense when you see it applied to an actual verb. The basic idea is that preterite-present verbs are strong verbs that have their past tenses and present tenses swapped. This is why they are called "preterite-present."
Preterite-present verbs are often used as modals; they are combined with other verbs (usually those other verbs are in the infinitive form) to produce constructions like "remember to go" or "dare to fight."
The important verbs in this category are:
agan = to possess
cunnan = to know
dugan = to achieve
durran = to dare
magan = to be able to
motan = to be allowed to
munan = to remember
nugan = to suffice
sculan = must, to be obligated
unnan = to grant
þurfan = to need
witan = to know
You'll be seeing these words a lot, so you might as well memorize them now.
Conjugating Preterite-Present Verbs
To construct a conjugation for a Preterite Present Verb, do the following:
Subtract the an ending from the infinitive. This gives you the stem of the verb:
witan -an = wit
Use the Strong Verb Paradigm to determine what the Past Singular would be:
wit would be a Class I Strong Verb, so we know that the Preterite would be wat
wit ==> wat
This now becomes the stem for the paradigm, and what you would have expected to be the present tense (wit, which, remember, is the stem minus the an ending of the infinitive) moves to the past tense.
Preterite-Present Verbs Examples
Present Tense
| Singular | |
|---|---|
| 1st Person | wat |
| 2nd Person | wast |
| 3rd Person | wat |
| Plural | |
| 1st, 2nd and 3rd Persons | witon |
Past Tense
| Singular | |
|---|---|
| 1st, 2nd and 3rd Persons | wiste or wisse |
| Plural | |
| 1st, 2nd and 3rd Persons | wiste or wisse |