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