+The _Principal Parts_ of a verb, or those from which the other parts are
derived, are the present indicative or the present infinitive, the past
indicative, and the past participle.+
List of Irregular Verbs. [Footnote: Grammarians have classed verbs on the
basis of their form or history as Strong (or Old) and Weak (or New).
Strong verbs form their past tense by changing the vowel of the present
without adding anything; weak verbs form their past tense by adding _ed,
d,_ or _t._ Some weak verbs change the vowel of the present; as, _tell,
told; teach, taught._ These are weak because they add _d_ or _t._
Some weak verbs shorten the vowel of the present without adding anything;
as, _feed, fed; lead, led;_ and some have the present and the past alike;
as, _set, set; rid, rid._ They have dropped the past tense ending.
The past participle of all strong verbs once ended in _en_ or _n,_ but in
many verbs this ending is now lost.
Since most verbs form their past tense and past participle by adding _ed,_
we call such Regular, and all others Irregular. Our irregular verbs include
all strong verbs and those that may be called "irregular weak" verbs.
Of the _ed_ added to form the past tense of regular verbs, _d_ is what
remains of _did;_ _we did love,_ for instance, being written _love-did-we.
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