Strong and Weak verbs in oe contents

Irregular (anomalous) verbs.
These verbs differ from all other verbs in that their forms are derived from different root, i.e. their system is based on suppletivity. For example, forms of the verb “be” are derived from three roots: wes-, es-, and be-. It is possible that these elements originally had different meanings, which were more concrete than the abstract meaning of ‘be’.

Conjugation / Infinitive					wesan, bēon (be)		gān, gangan (go)
Indicative	Present	Singular		1^st pers.	eom, bēo		gā
				2d pers.	eart, bist		gǣst
	3d pers.	is, biÞ		gǣÞ
	Plural				sind(on), bēoÞ, sīen, sīn, bēon, sint		gāÞ
Past	Singular	1^st pers.			Wæs		ēode
		2d person			Wǣre		ēodest
3d person			Wæs		ēode
Plural				Wǣron		ēodon
Present Subjunctive		Singular				sīe, sī, bēo, s		gā
Plural				sind(on), bēoÞ, sīen, sīn, bēon, sint		gān
Past Subjunctive		Singular				Wǣre		ēode
Plural				Wǣren		ēoden
Participle I					wesende, bēonde		gānde, gangende
Past Participle II					—		(ge)gān
Imperative		Singular 2d person				wes, bēo		gā
Plural 2d person				wesaÞ, bēoÞ		gāÞ

Strong Verbs

Strong Verbs are verbs in which the vowel in the stem is changed to indicate tenses.
Ring ==> Rang ==> Rung
is an example of a strong verb in Modern English; the vowel changes from "i" to "a" to "u" depending upon the verb tense.
Although they are not in themselves particularly difficult to understand, strong verbs can cause problems for beginning Old English student translations because the form of a strong verb that you find in a sentence is very often not the form of the verb listed in the dictionary. For example, if you look up the word sungon in the dictionary, you will not find it (just as you will not find “sung” in a Modern English dictionary). To find the meaning of sungon you must convert the verb to its infinitive form, singan, which you can then easily find in the dictionary. In order to translate strong verbs, then, we need to be able to recognize the patterns of vowel changes and reconstruct the infinitive from whichever forms we find in sentences.

Weak Verbs

Remember that Old English verbs can be divided into four main categories: weak verbs (the subject of this chapter), strong verbs (the subject of chapter 17), preterite-present verbs (the subject ofchapter 18), and irregular verbs (which we discussed in chapter 9).⁵
Weak Verbs are verbs which add an ending to a verb stem to indicate person, number, tense, and mood.
Most verbs in Modern English behave like weak verbs.
Walk ==> Walked is an example of a weak verb.
Most verbs in Modern English behave like weak verbs.
To find the stem of an Old English verb, take the infinitive (which ends with -an) and subtract the ending.
For example, the stem of the verb deman = "to judge" is dem.
First Conjugation Weak Verbs: The stem generally ends in a consonant (these are the most common weak verbs).
Second Conjugation Weak Verbs: The stem generally ends in a vowel (these are less common than first conjugation weak verbs).
Third Conjugation Weak Verbs: These verbs don't fit into the first two conjugations. Luckily there are only three that you really need to worry about.

First Conjugation Weak Verbs

As with all conjugations, you begin with the infinitive, which ends in an.
Reminder: verbs are listed in dictionaries and glossaries under their infinitive forms.
Subtract an to find the stem of the verb.
Add the appropriate ending from the table below to the stem to form the conjugated verb.