What are strong verbs and weak verbs?

A verb which forms its past tense by a change in the main vowel of the present tense and without the addition of any ending is called a strong verb. 

These are:

1)   Those that form the past participle by the addition of n, en or ne.
2)   Those that form the past participle without any such addition.

Instances of the same are:

- Give, gave, given

- Sit, sat, sat

A verb which forms its past tense by adding –ed, -d or –t to the present tense, either with or without a change in the vowel sound, is called a weak verb.

These are:

- Verbs which form the past tense by adding -d, -ed or -t to the present, with no change in the vowel sound. Most verbs in the language belong to this category.

Instances are:

Say, said, said
Keep, kept, kept

- Verbs which end in -d or -t and simply shorten their vowel sound in the past tense:

Feed, fed, fed
Breed, bred, bred

- Verbs which have all the three forms alike:

Bet, bet, bet
Hit, hit, hit

  • 2
What are you looking for?