The subject of history of English

16 OE Verb. Its categories. The form-building devices were gradation (vowel interchange), the use of suffixes, inflections, and suppletion.The non-finite forms of the verb in Old English were the infinitive and two Participles. Participle I is formed by means of the suffix -ende added to the stem of the infinitive: writan - writende (to write - writing),sprecan - sprecende (to speak – speaking).Participle II expressed actions and states resulting from past action and was passive in meaning with transitive verbs, and rendered only temporal meaning of the past with the intransitive. Participle II was commonly marked by the prefix ʒe-, writan - writen, ʒewriten.The verb in Old English has the following categories: person, number, tense and mood.Number is a way of agreement of the predicate with the subject represented by the opposition of the singular and the plural. As dual number by that time was very seldom used.The category of person is represented by all the three persons, though this opposition is neutralised in many positions. Present Tense Singular has all the forms, whereas in plural the category is not shown.The category of mood was represented by the opposition of three moods - Indicative - Subjunctive - Imperative.The Indicative mood represents the action as a real fact. The Imperative expresses order, or request to a second person. The action expressed by Subjunctive mood is shifted from reality . It is usually implied condition, desire, obligation, doubt, uncertainty.The category of Tense was represented by the opposition past -nonpast or preterit - non-preterit. The current form for the non-preterite is the Present. The cases of use:the actual present, the “now”;in reference to a regular or habitual action;with future time reference; emphatic present to make the narration more vivid; historical present.