Lecture Old English phonetics. The verb as a

Class I

• 
  ī ‧ ā ‧ i ‧ i
  

eg scīnan, 1st pret scān, pret pl scinon, past ppl scinen

Class II

• 
  ēo/ū ‧ ēa ‧ u ‧ o
  

eg ċēosan, 1st pret ċēas, pret pl curon, past ppl coren

Class III

• 
  IIIa: i ‧ a ‧ u ‧ u
  

eg bindan, 1st pret band, pret pl bundon, past ppl bunden

• 
  IIIb: e/eo/ie ‧ ea ‧ u ‧ o
  

eg helpan, 1st pret healp, pret pl hulpon, past ppl holpen

• 
  IIIc: e ‧ æ ‧ u ‧ o
  

eg breġdan, 1st pret bræġd, pret pl brugdon, past ppl brogden

Class IV

• 
  e ‧ æ ‧ ǣ ‧ o
  

eg beran, 1st pret bær, pret pl bǣron, past ppl boren

Class V

• 
  e ‧ æ ‧ ǣ ‧ e
  

eg cweþan, 1st pret cwæþ, pret pl cwǣdon, past ppl cweden

Class VI

• 
  a ‧ ō ‧ ō ‧ a
  

eg standan, 1st pret stōd, pret pl stōdon, past ppl standen

Class VII

• 
  ea ‧ ēo ‧ ēo ‧ ea
  

eg healdan, 1st pret hēold, pret pl hēoldon, past ppl healden

• 
  Germanic weak verb
  

Weak verbs are more predictable. They form their preterite tense by adding -de in the singular and -don in the plural. This is the root of the common English past-tense suffix -ed. Weak verbs are often formed from nouns, or are in general "newer" words.
There are three classes of weak verb, denoted on Wiktionary with Arabic numerals.

Class 1

Class 1 weak verbs have an infinitive ending in -an or -rian. Third-person present singular ends in -eþ, and present plural ends in -aþ.

Class 2

Class 2 weak verbs have an infinitive ending in -ian (except -rian, above). Their third-person present singular ending is -aþ, like Class 1 plurals. Class 2 present plurals end in -iaþ.

Class 3

Class 3 weak verbs are more unpredictable, and often combine features of the first two weak classes. There are four Class 3 verbs: habban, libban, seċġan and hyċġan.

The OE Verb was characterized by many peculiar features. Though the verb had few grammatical categories, its paradigm had a very complicated structure: verbs fell into numerous morphological classes and employed a variety of form building means. All the forms of the verb were synthetic, as analytical forms were only beginning to appear. The non-finite forms had little in common with the finite forms but shared many features with the nominal parts of speech. The verbs are divided in two main groups: strong and weak. Strong verbs form their preterite and participle II by changing of the root-vowel; weak verbs form their preterite and participle II by addition of a dental suffix. The weak verbs are a productive type: the strong group are a survival of Indo-European gradation, which was a regular change of vowel (e-o-zero) conveying grammatical and lexical distinctions.

The OE system of finite verbs forms includes tenses-present and Preterite; three moods- Indicative, Subjunctive and Imperative. The Category of Person is represented only in the Indicative singular and the Imperative; there is no indication of person in the Indicative plural or in any of the subjunctive forms. The strong verbs are subdivided in 7 classes, each class with its own type of vowel-change. Class 7 is the most regular one; it forms a number of small groups, and many verbs belonging to this class have weak forms besides the strong ones.
The stems given below are distributed in the following manner: I grade II grade III grade

(i)	(a)	(i)	(i)
1 st class	wrat	writon	writen
writan’write
(eo)	(ea)	(u)	(o)
2 nd cl.	ceas	curon	curen
ceosan’choose’
(i) a(o)	(u)		(u)
drincan’drink’ dranc	druncon		druncen

Present 1 and 3 person Plural and 2 person Indicative, Sg. Preterite (Past) Part II Singular Preterite Present subjuntive Subjunctive Preterite (Past) Infinitive, Participle I
3 rd cl.

(i) (ea)	(u)	(o)
helpan’help healp	hulpon	hulpen
(eo) (ea)	(u)
steorfan’die’ stearf feaht	sturfon	sturfen
feohtan’fight’	fuhton	fohten
(e) (æ)	(æ)	(o)
4 th class stæl bær	stælon	stolon
stelan’steal’ beran’bear’	bæron	boron
(e) (æ)	(æ)	(e)
5 th class	trædon	treden
cwepan’ say’ cwæp træd	cwædon,	cwæden

(a) (o) o a 6 th class
faran ‘go’ (-ar, -al) for foron foren a+согл
7 th class (e) (e) (a/ æ/ea)
hatan ‘call’ het heton haton
feallan ‘fall’ feol feollon feallen cneawan ‘know’ cneow cneowen cneowon flowan ‘flow’ fleo fleowon fleawen
slæpan ‘sleep’ slep slæpon slæpen The weak verbs
The weak verbs are subdivided in 3 groups, according to the stem-vowel joining the endings to the root. They are:

1. 
   The 1 st class formerly with [-ja] in the present and [i] in the past. It’s root-vowel is mutated; the dental suffix was joined to the root by [i] which had disappeared after long syllables (deman-demde) and was weakened to /e/ after short syllables (fremman-fremede).
   
2. 
   The 2 nd class has -ian in the infinitive (< ojan) and /o/ in the preterite. The vowel is not mutated.
   
3. 
   The 3 rd class in cludes very few verbs: the dental suffix is joined immediately to the root, in the present there was /j/, but the 2 nd and 3 rd persons sg. show no trace of /j/.
   

Infinitive Preterite Participle II 1 st class
deman demade demed 2 nd cl.
macian macode macod 3 rd cl.
sec3an sæ3de
Conjugation of Verbs. Strong Verbs.
Indicative Present Preterite Subjunctive
(I grade) (2 and 3 grade) Present (I grade) Preterite(3 grade)

1. 
   bind- e band
   

Singular 2. -est bund- e bind- bund- e Plural 3. -eþ band
-aþ bund-on bind- en bund- en