The distinct inflections are found only in the present and past tenses, however:  the others are compounds of verbal forms with various helping verbs, called auxiliaries; such as be, have, shall, will.

[Sidenote:  The tenses in detail.]

234.  Action or being may be represented as occurring in present, past, or future time, by means of the present, the past, and the future tense.  It may also be represented as finished in present or past or future time by means of the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect tenses.

Not only is this so:  there are what are called definite forms of these tenses, showing more exactly the time of the action or being.  These make the English speech even more exact than other languages, as will be shown later on, in the conjugations.

PERSON AND NUMBER.

235.  The English verb has never had full inflections for number and person, as the classical languages have.

When the older pronoun thou was in use, there was a form of the verb to correspond to it, or agree with it, as, “Thou walk_est_,” present; “Thou walked_st_,” past; also, in the third person singular, a form ending in -eth, as, “It is not in man that walk_eth_, to direct his steps.”

But in ordinary English of the present day there is practically only one ending for person and number.  This is the third person, singular number; as, “He walk_s_;” and this only in the present tense indicative.  This is important in questions of agreement when we come to syntax.

CONJUGATION.

[Sidenote:  Definition.]

236.  Conjugation is the regular arrangement of the forms of the verb in the various voices, moods, tenses, persons, and numbers.

In classical languages, conjugation means joining together the numerous endings to the stem of the verb; but in English, inflections are so few that conjugation means merely the exhibition of the forms and the different verb phrases that express the relations of voice, mood, tense, etc.

[Sidenote:  Few forms.]

237.  Verbs in modern English have only four or five forms; for example, walk has walk, walks, walked, walking, sometimes adding the old forms walkest, walkedst, walketh.  Such verbs as choose have five,—­choose, chooses, chose, choosing, chosen (old, choosest, chooseth, chosest).

The verb be has more forms, since it is composed of several different roots,—­am, are, is, were, been, etc.

238.  INFLECTIONS OF THE VERB BE.

Indicative Mood.