An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press

conjugations, that is to say, paradigm sets. This is not merely a matter of
contrasts between weak and strong verbs; within each of these groups
there are several different classes. In terms of weak verbs there are three
classes, prosaically named as classes 1, 2 and 3. When we turn to strong
verbs I shall distinguish these by using roman numerals, e.g. I, II, etc. This
will help you to know immediately whether a verb is weak or strong.
When the paradigms for the weak conjugation are presented, the usual
practice is to present them in numerical order. Here, however, I want to
present the paradigm of a weak class 2 verb first, not out of awkwardness,
but because it is the simplest. A typical verb of this conjugation is lufian
‘love’, and its paradigm is as follows:
Present
Past
Indicative
1 Sing.
lufie
lufode
2 Sing.
lufast
lufodest
3 Sing.
lufa
e
lufode
Plural
lufia
e
lufodon
Subjunctive
Sing.
lufie
lufode
Plural
lufien
lufoden
Imperative
2 Sing.
lufa
_____
2 Plural
lufia
e
_____
Participle
lufiende
g
.
elufod
There are no significant variations from this paradigm; note especially
that heavy-stemmed verbs such as lo¯cian ‘look’ and endian ‘end’ follow
exactly the same paradigm. The variations that do occur are found in
unstressed syllables, so that, for example, there are many instances of
lufeden rather than lufoden.
If we examine firstly the present tense, the 2nd and 3rd person forms
VERB FORMS
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persist until the time of the Authorised Bible, so perhaps they will be
recognisable as related to thou lovest and he/she/it loveth. Present-day
he/she/it loves, you should note, derives from lufes which already in Old
English had become common in texts from the north-east of England,
i.e. Northumbria, where we find, for example, 
†
u lufes, he lufes. This is a
point I shall return to in a later chapter. Such forms never appear in West
Saxon texts of any period.
Another point to note is that in some parts of the paradigm there is an
-i- after the stem, as in lufie whereas elsewhere there is no such vowel, as
in lufast. This is not particularly important in itself, but it will be import-
ant when we compare class 2 verbs with class 1 verbs, so it is necessary
to bear in mind its presence. Finally note the ending of the present