Strong verb

“ Adjectives agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case.
§ 74. The noun is often understood, especially if neut., ("things.")
§ 75. Sometimes a relative is "attracted" into the case of the omitted antecedent.
§ 76. A verb agrees with its subject nominative in number and person.
§ 77. The case of the subject of the Infin. depends upon other relations.
§ 78. Neuters plur. generally have a sing. verb.
Government.
§ 79. Any word may govern another (or others) which in sense is dependent upon it in the case appropriate for expressing such relation either with or without a preposition. ”

“ Imperfect tense.
[68]
In such sentences as these, wherein the verb is used reflectively,—"If I lay myself down on the grass I shall catch cold," "He laid himself down on the green sward,"—the verb "to lay" is with propriety substituted for the verb "to lie;" for the addition of the emphatic pronoun myself, or himself, constituting an objective case, and coming immediately after the verb, without the intervention of a preposition, renders it necessary that the verb employed should be active, not neuter, because "active verbs govern the objective case." ”

“ Active verbs, denote action as, I eat, I love, I work. Passive verbs, denote suffering, they are only the participle passive of an active verb with a tense of the neuter verb to be before it; as, I am loved, you are dressed. ”

“ In the Participles the stem ends in ντ in the act. forms, (except the Perf. act. and mid., which have ότ;) the rest take μεν, (Perf. pass, μέν.) These latter are [masc. and neut.] of the second declension, the others of the third.
§ 56. Verbs in μι insert σ before the final ι of the 3d pers. sing. Pres. Indic. act., and vary in a few other terminations, chiefly by contraction.
LESSON V. VERBS--Continued.
§ 57. The root of every primitive verb is a monosyllable, consisting of a short vowel (α, ε, ι, ο, or υ) between two (usually simple) consonants. ”

“ The Aorists indicate a single act at a definite time, (past in the Indic., but undetermined in the others moods.)
§ 49. All the tenses with respect to form may be classed thus:--
These classes usually have the following endings respectively:--
Notes on the Table of Verb Endings.
§ 50. In the Pres. and Fut. the ο of the 1st sing. act. is contracted (with the union-vowel) into ω, and the σαι of the 2d sing. pass. into ῃ or ει.
§ 51. Signification limits the primary terminations to the Indic. and Subj., and the secondary to the Indic. and Opt.: likewise the Imperf. and Pluperf. ”

“ The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb.
Attracted is a regular active-transitive verb, from attract, attracted, attracting, attracted; found in the indicative mood, imperfect tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 2. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 3. An active-transitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has some person or thing for its object. ”

“ Have the goodness, however, first to turn back and read over Lecture II., and reflect well upon what is there said respecting the verb; after which I will conduct you so smoothly through the moods and tenses, and the conjugation of verbs, that, instead of finding yourself involved in obscurities and deep intricacies, you will scarcely find an obstruction to impede your progress.
I. OF THE MOODS.
The MOOD or MODE of a verb means the manner in which its action, passion, or being, is represented. ”

“ A verb is a word which signifies to be, to do, or to [Pg 53] suffer. Verbs are divided into neuter, active, and passive. Neuter verbs merely signify being, or that kind of action which has no effect upon any thing beyond the performer, as, I am, I sit, I walk. (You may distinguish those neuter verbs that seem to imply action from active verbs by their making a complete sense by themselves, whereas active verbs always require a noun or pronoun after them to finish the sense.) ”

“ Force grows out of simplicity, clearness, terseness of style. The story told in plain, curt phrase is more effective than the story which shows a conscious striving after effect. Diction is important. A strong word lends strength to an entire sentence, while a weak word may spoil the vividness of an impression. As a rule the words that are deeply rooted in everyday speech are stronger than their synonyms of foreign origin. Words derived13 from the Anglo-Saxon are the bone and sinew of the language. ”

“ To the same class of words belong pains, news, and perhaps some others. Every person who has read good English authors, or lived where the language is spoken in purity, must have observed that the word pains is usually preceded by much, and followed by a verb in the singular number; much pains was taken. If the word is a plural noun, it should neither be followed by a singular verb, nor preceded by much; for we never prefix much to plurals. The most untutored ear would be offended at much papers, much labors. But do we not always say much pains? ”

“ The energic attribute, which aids in forming the verb, may be a real movement or action, as going, coming, living, working, etc., or merely a qualitative Being, as a being beautiful, good, mortal, or immortal. In the former case, we have a real attributive verb, in the latter a substantive verb, in which an attribute is considered as at rest, hence as an adjective. ”

“ To verbs belong Number, Person, Mood, and Tense. These may be called the properties of a verb; and like those of opium, they are soporiferous properties. There are two very important objects which the writer of every book has, or ought to have in view, to get a reader who is wide awake, and to keep him so:—the latter of which, when Number, Person, Mood, and Tense are to be treated of, is no such easy matter ”

“ The phrases made by the auxiliaries may and can with the infinitive of a verb are sometimes called potential verb-phrases, because they express that an action is possible from the subject having power to perform it. ”

“ The construction of verbs is very similar to that of nouns. When the subject precedes, it is connected with its verb by the particle ay, ‘to be.’ The direct object of the active and the agent of the passive stand in the genitive, other nominal adjuncts in the oblique case. Any verbal form may take the article ang. The character of the subject determines the verbal form to be used in a sentence. In general, if the subject is the agent of an action, the verb stands in the active, otherwise in the passive. ”

“ Or with a reversed fortune a word lives on as a noun, but has perished as a verb—thus as a noun substantive, a ‘slug’, but no longer ‘to slug’ or render slothful; a ‘child’, but no longer ‘to child’, (“childing autumn”, Shakespeare) ; a ‘rape’, but not ‘to rape’ (South) ; a ‘rogue’, but not ‘to rogue’; ‘malice’, but not ‘to malice’; a ‘path’, but not ‘to path’; or as a noun adjective, ‘serene’, but not ‘to serene’, a beautiful word, which we have let go, as the French have ‘sereiner’ [151] ; ‘meek’, [136] but not ‘to meek’ (Wiclif) ; ‘fond’, but not ‘to fond’ (Dryden) ”

“ Verb, “I know very well that when people want to name a thing they must use a noun. But do you suppose that when they have simply named a thing they have made a sentence? Not a bit of it. To make a sentence you must tell something about the thing that you have named; you must say whether it is or has or does anything, as: ‘Ice is cold,’ ‘Puss has a tail,’ ‘Blackbirds sing.’ Is, has, sing, are verbs, and so are all words that speak of being, having, or doing, and without some such word you cannot make a sentence.” ”

“ CHAPTER VI VERBS § 72. The MHG. verb has the following independent forms:—one voice (active) , two numbers, three persons, two tenses (present and preterite) , two complete moods (indicative and subjunctive, the latter originally the optative) , besides an imperative which is only used in the present tense; two verbal nouns (the present infinitive, and the gerund, generally called the inflected infinitive) , a present participle with active meaning, and one verbal adjective (the past participle) . ”

“ It is only position that determines in each case how the word is to be understood; thus traditional convention assigns to ta fu the meaning of “a great man,” and to fu ta that of “the man is great.” Being habituated to the constant use of the verb is in such a case as the latter, we are apt to suppose that the expression derives its predicative force from its suggesting the verb of existence, which the mind instinctively and necessarily supplies for itself. ”

“ Whatever one wishes to say, there is only one noun to express it, only one verb to give it life, only one adjective to qualify it. Search, then, till that noun, that verb, that adjective are discovered; never be content with “very nearly”; never have recourse to tricks, however happy ”

“ How many grammars tell us, that, "The first person is the person who speaks;" that, "The second person is the person spoken to;" and that, "the third person is the person spoken of!" As if the three persons of a verb, or other part of speech, were so many intelligent beings! ”

“ It is not a value judgment. `Nice', `horrible', `detestable' — we have plenty of these words. There is no need for any adjectives and adverbs. There is no need even for a verb. It is the verb that creates a problem. For purposes of communication we have to rely upon words. ”

“ Gen. and dat. of 1st and 2d decl. are always circumflex when accented on last syllable.
15. ἐγένετο--verb, came to be, lit., was born; from γίνομαι, (for γίγνομαι, strengthened [§ 63] by reduplication, [§ 67,] and then contracted for γιγεν;) depon., § 40; true root γεν, [our kin,] § 57, here appearing in 2d aor. mid., § 48; ἐ is simple aug., (hence the verb is in the indic., § 60;) third ε is mood-vowel, § 42; το is 3d pers. sing. ”

“ We may excuse faulty attire, forgive the social slips of those who have forgotten from their little book on etiquette—in a word, we can overlook almost all shortcomings and errors of conduct save those only of speech. There is something in a man’s words that marks him with the mark of Cain or puts the halo around his brow. Yet, what a curious thing is language? Words are the least part of it. Their aptness, inflections, tones, pronunciations, stresses, and combinations—their parallelisms and contrasts—all these are immeasurably greater than the mere words themselves. ”

“ Wallis, and sometimes endeavour to supply his detects, and rectify his errours.
Nouns are derived from verbs.
The thing implied in the verb, as done or produced, is commonly either the present of the verb; as to love, love; to fright, a fright; to fight, a fight; or the preterit of the verb, as to strike, I strick or strook, a stroke.
The action is the same with the participle present, as loving, frighting, fighting, striking. ”

“ After this you may teach him the flexion or conjugation of the verb, or what is equivalent thereunto; for in our English tongue each verb hath but two tenses, the present and the preter; two participles, the active and the passive; all the rest is performed by auxiliaries, which auxiliaries have no more tenses than the other verbs. ”

“ Owe has become a regular weak verb, except for the peculiar past tense ought, which is used in a present sense (see § 293) ; dare has in the third person dare or dares, and in the past dared, more rarely durst. The archaic wot “know,” past wist, also belongs to this class. Will is inflected like shall, having will in the first and third singular, wilt in the second singular, and would in the past.
CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO BE CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO STRIKE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS
1. Every sentence begins with a capital letter.
2. Every line of poetry begins with a capital letter. ”

“ Ἰωάννης--prop. noun; 1st decl. masc. nom. sing., § 28; predicate after neut. verb, (understood,) agreeing with subj., § 71.
9. οὗτος--See vii, 11.
10. ἠλθεν--verb, assigned to ἔρχομαι, but really from defective ἐλεύθω; root, ελθ; temporal aug., [ε+ε=η,] § 60; hence indic., as union-vowel (ε) following also shows, § 42; simple root 2d aor., § 57; hence no tense ending in 3d pers. sing. act., § 49 ”

“ A verb is a word which asserts or declares. In other words, it makes a noun or pronoun tell something. John paper tells nothing. John wastes paper tells something. Verbs are the most difficult of all the parts of speech to understand and to use properly. As a rule, an English verb has something more than fifty parts which, with their uses, should be thoroughly learned from a grammar. ”

“ In questions and in negative statements the emphatic forms are used without the effect of emphasis.
Did you go? I did not go.
Note. Do often stands for some other verb which has just been used: as, “Jack swims better than I do,” “You looked as tired as she did.” This idiom comes from the omission of the infinitive in the verb-phrase:—“Jack swims better than I do [swim] .”
In poetry and older English the verb-phrase with do or did in declarative sentences often carries no emphasis, but merely takes the place of the present or past: as,—“The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” ”

“ The verbal nouns in ing, such as the keeping of the castle, the leading of the army, are always neglected, or placed only to illustrate the sense of the verb, except when they signify things as well as actions, and have, therefore, a plural number, as dwelling, living; or have an absolute and abstract signification, as colouring, painting, learning.
The participles are likewise omitted, unless, by signifying rather habit or quality than action, they take the nature of adjectives; as a thinking man, a man of prudence ”

“ When we wish to express strong emotion or to describe action resulting from excitement, we only weaken the impression by using unnecessary words. Simple, direct sentences are most forceful. In aiming to secure sentence emphasis, then, we should avoid circumlocution, redundancy, tautology, and verbosity. (Look up these terms in the Century Dictionary.) ”