Basics — Old English Verbs

Verb moods

Old English has three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. The indicative and subjunctive each inflect for present and past tense.

Present Indicative

States facts and real events in the present. The default mood for ordinary statements.

Past Indicative

States facts and real events in the past. The default mood for ordinary past statements.

Present Subjunctive

Expresses present possibility, doubt, wishes, or indirect speech. Used where something is not stated as straightforwardly real.

Past Subjunctive

Expresses past possibility, doubt, wishes, or indirect speech. Often found in hypothetical or reported constructions.

Imperative

The command form. Old English distinguishes a singular and plural imperative.

Non-finite forms

Non-finite forms are verb forms not inflected for person, number, or mood. Old English has two infinitives and two participles.

Infinitive

The base verb form — equivalent to modern to sing in its plain sense. Used after verbs of wanting, intending, or ability.

Inflected Infinitive

Used to express purpose or intention. Formed with tō + the -enne ending — equivalent to in order to sing.

Present Participle

Describes an ongoing action — equivalent to the modern -ing form. Used attributively (the singing man) or adverbially (he came singing).

Past Participle

Describes a completed action. Used in passive and perfect constructions. Typically formed with the ġe- prefix.

Strong vs Weak verbs

Old English verbs divide into two major types, distinguished by how they form the past tense.

Strong verbs form the past tense by changing the root vowel — a process called ablaut, or vowel gradation. Singan (to sing) is a strong verb: its present stem has i, its past singular has a (sang), and its past plural and past participle have u (sungon, ġesungen). Strong verbs are grouped into seven classes based on their ablaut pattern.

Weak verbs form the past tense with a dental suffix — the ancestor of the modern English -ed ending. Lufian (to love) is a weak verb: its past tense is lufode. Weak verbs are grouped into two main classes based on their stem type.

The ablaut series

Each strong verb class has a characteristic sequence of root vowels — the ablaut series — that appears across four key forms: the infinitive, the past indicative singular, the past indicative plural, and the past participle. Knowing the series for a class lets you derive the strong verb forms.

Class III, for example, has the series i – a – u – u:

singan — to sing — Strong Class III

Position	Vowel	Form
Infinitive	i	singan
Pret. sg.	a	sang
Pret. pl.	u	sungon
Past part.	u	ġesungen

The ablaut series for each verb is shown on its card in the verb reference.