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"A work on english grammar and composition"


Wring, wrung, wrung.
Write, wrote, written.
[Footnote 1: _Lighted_ Is preferred to _lit_.]
[Footnote 2: _Quoth_, now nearly obsolete, is used only in the first and
the third person of the past tense. _Quoth_ I = _said_ I. Other forms
nearly obsolete are sometimes met in literature; as, "_Methinks_ I scent
the morning air"; "Woe _worth_ the day." _Methinks_ (A. S. _thincan_, to
seem, not _thencan_, to think) = _seems to me_. In the sentence above, _I
scent the morning air_ is the subject, _thinks_ is the predicate, and _me_
is a "dative," or a pronoun used adverbially. Woe _worth_ (A. S.
_weorthan_, to _be_ or _become_) the day = Woe _be_ to the day, or _Let_
woe _be_ to the day, or _May_ woe _be_ to the day.]

NOTE.--Professor Lounsbury says, "Modern English has lost not a single one
[irregular, or strong, verb] since the reign of Queen Elizabeth"; and adds,
"The present disposition of the language is not only to hold firmly to the
strong verbs it already possesses but ... even to extend their number
whenever possible." And he instances a few which since 1600 have deserted
from the regular conjugation to the irregular.
But it should be said that new English verbs, from whatever source derived,
form their past tense and participle in _ed_.


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