It ate the food it ne’er had eat.—­COLERIDGE.

     How fairy Mab the junkets eat.—­MILTON.

     The island princes overbold
     Have eat our substance.—­TENNYSON.

This is also very much used in spoken and vulgar English.

The form gotten is little used, got being the preferred form of past participle as well as past tense.  One example out of many is,—­

     We had all got safe on shore.—­DE FOE.

Hung and hanged both are used as the past tense and past participle of hang; but hanged is the preferred form when we speak of execution by hanging; as,

     The butler was hanged.—­Bible.

The verb sat is sometimes spelled sate; for example,—­

     Might we have sate and talked where gowans blow.—­WORDSWORTH.

     He sate him down, and seized a pen.—­BYRON.

     “But I sate still and finished my plaiting.”—­KINGSLEY.

Usually shear is a weak verb. Shorn and shore are not commonly used:  indeed, shore is rare, even in poetry.

     This heard Geraint, and grasping at his sword,
     Shore thro’ the swarthy neck.—­TENNYSON.

Shorn is used sometimes as a participial adjective, as “a shorn lamb,” but not much as a participle.  We usually say, “The sheep were sheared” instead of “The sheep were shorn.”

Went is borrowed as the past tense of go from the old verb wend, which is seldom used except in poetry; for example,—­

     If, maiden, thou would’st wend with me
     To leave both tower and town.—­SCOTT.

Exercises.

(a) From the table (Sec. 245), make out lists of verbs having the same vowel changes as each of the following:—­

  1.  Fall, fell, fallen.

  2.  Begin, began, begun.

  3.  Find, found, found.

  4.  Give, gave, given.

  5.  Drive, drove, driven.

  6.  Throw, threw, thrown.

  7.  Fling, flung, flung.

  8.  Break, broke, broken.

  9.  Shake, shook, shaken.

  10.  Freeze, froze, frozen.

(b) Find sentences using ten past-tense forms of strong verbs.

(c) Find sentences using ten past participles of strong verbs.

[To the Teacher,—­These exercises should be continued for several lessons, for full drill on the forms.]

DEFECTIVE STRONG VERBS.

247.  There are several verbs which are lacking in one or more principal parts.  They are as follows:—­

PRESENT.     PAST.      |     PRESENT.      PAST.
|
may         might      |      [ought]     ought
can         could      |      shall       should
[must]      must       |      will        would

248.  May is used as either indicative or subjunctive, as it has two meanings.  It is indicative when it expresses permission, or, as it sometimes does, ability, like the word can:  it is subjunctive when it expresses doubt as to the reality of an action, or when it expresses wish, purpose, etc.