I noticed the same thing you remarked about common verbs being irregular. I noticed something else: Profanity is almost never irregular. The one notable exception is the past-tense verb "shat."
Most strong verbs were inherited from PIE, but there is at least one that was borrowed from Latin: skrībaną (write, English descendant is shrive). "Be" had two infinitives in some Germanic languages, and may have had three: beuną, wesaną, and sīną (I've never seen the last one, only its descendants sein/zijn, and it appears to be a West Germanic invention).
Except what you're calling irregular verbs do follow predictable patterns. They're strong verbs. Ride-rode-ridden is perfectly regular within the class of strong verbs it's descended from. The patterns are not always absolutely predictable in Old English either. That doesn't make them irregular. The truly irregular verbs like go, do, and is were already irregular in Old English (and in Proto-Germanic). Have is a weak verb descended from "habban," whose conjugation is predictable. The theory about frequency of use is supported by the strong verbs resisting change, but it's change into weak verbs not "regular verbs." There's more than one kind of regular verb.
Thank you for sharing. Your videos are really useful for me. If you have time, you can make video about the order of adjectives. What origin and Why? Thank you so much :)
I prefer leapt over leaped for consistency, although I wish the A wasn't there. I wish we could adopt yode again or use wend instead of go to make things simpler.
I frequently use sleeped sometimes if I'm not thinking about it, becausd it makes sense to me. Also, I'm glad someone realizes wend is a thing. I had an entire dinner conversation debate with my family about whether or not wend was an actual word.
1:30 But did the change really not happen before the 1100 AD? The same thing has happened in all of the Germanic languages, so I can't see how it happened that late.
The explanation is really weak though. It doesn't give the reason for the regular, irregular and mixed class verbs (examples of mixed were given, but she lumped them in with 'irregular'.) She just called it either 'reinforcement' or 'resistance' in usage for why some verbs became irregular and others regular. If she had actually talked about Old and Middle English being a form of Anglo-Saxon German, and the verbs were conjugated similarly to all Germanic languages based on the vowel in the stem of the verb, it would have made more sense. She mentioned the stem vowel and that in pre-modern English the past tense was created by changing the vowel in consistent patterns, but she didn't relate that to modern English and German and how those predictable patterns are still in use. For example 'i-stem' verbs--sing/sang/sung; drink/drank/drunk; ring/rang/rung, or 'e-stem' verbs--see/saw/seen; eat/ate/eaten, etc. These are consistent patterns in all Germanic languages, including English. (In German: singt/sang/gesungen; trinkt/trank/getrunken; ringt/rang/gerungen; isst/ass/gegessen; sieht/sah/gesehen, etc.) Nor did she explain the difference in conjugation patterns between related transitive (regular) and intransitive verbs (irregular), e.g. set-sit, lay-lie, etc., which also follow the normal Germanic patterns. It isn't just haphazard or a matter of resistance and reinforcement over time. Irregular verbs with their vowel-stem changes to indicate tense are simply the nature of Germanic verbs, and there are clear reasons and patterns for the vowel changes. It's not a mystery. It's pretty clearly documented in the history of the Germanic languages. She presented English as if it were an isolated language unrelated to any others. If she had presented English as a Germanic language with common characteristics to other Germanic languages, it would have been more to the point.
Anuja, pre-Modern English was before 1500...I think the dates they usually give is between 1150-1500 for Middle English, which developed out of Late Old English prior to the 1100s.
All your pedant explanation is totally useless. The aim of this video was just presenting the differences between regular verbs and irregular ones. Not to give a university lecture on language History.
Are there languages where the verb "to be" is regular? Why is the verb to be irregular in so many languages, if not all languages (which use the verb)?
Hank Some languages lack a verb for 'to be' and instead settle with just using pronouns in combination with other words. Some of those languages are Hebrew (Ani, at/a), Japanese (Boku, Anata) and Turkish (Ben, sen), among others. They just place the pronouns before a noun to form sentences without a connective verb (the to be verb). In Hebrew, you would just say "Ani student" and in Turkish "Ben öğrenci". In Japanese, people almost always omit the pronouns all together, relying on suffixes (To, ha, ga, etc) for the sentence to make sense to the listener.
Ben Öğrenci is totally nonsense in Turkish. No one Uses that. Imagine someone saying I Student. We say Ben bir öğrenciyim or Ben öğrenciyim. probably am means -yim in that usage. bir means a/an. Not a linguist expert. Also There are no irregular verbs in Turkish. Not sure about to be.
well the Norwegian to be came close to that, the infinitive is å være but once it's conjugated it becomes jeg er (i am) du er (you are, pretty rhymes btw) han/hun er ( he /she is) and so on.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the Germanic ablaut or umlaut in the video. Still, I look forward to the continuation in the form of "Why do we have irregular plural forms". Actually, why do you have (not we), as English is not my L1.
If we go from the ideas stated in the video, can we prove that the English people in the past sang more than they danced? Can anyone confirm this, like a pro or anything? I'm actually pretty curious.
We would have to take into account that 'dance' comes from Old French 'dansier', and dansier's origen is uncertain, although suspected to be from Old Frisian, from a word meaning quiver or tremble. As I'm no expert you can read more here www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dance What I find curious is that dance replaced an already existing verb, which came from Latin, so I wonder what word was used before.
Anthony, Old Frisian is definitely a German dialect, and all modern Germanic languages use some form of 'dance', usually with a 't' however...tanzen or some variation of that. Even Slavic languages use a derivative. Perhaps, the Italian 'ballare' and Spanish 'bailar' from the Latin 'ballo' is the word that 'dance' replaced.
Agreed, English has 'strong' (irregular) verbs, 'weak' (regular) verbs, irregular weak verbs and mixed (regular strong verbs). Hit and cut are irregular weak verbs. 'Bring' and 'think' are mixed class verbs that have a vowel-stem change and a regular suffix (t or ed)--brings/brought/has brought; thinks/thought/has thought. These are also considered 'mixed' in German--bringt/brachte/hat gebracht; denkt/dachte/hat gedacht.
Actually "bring" and "think" are irregular weak verbs, not strong. They have a nasal infix which caused a vowel change. The mixed verbs are verbs like "swell", which is class-3 strong with a weak past tense.
It's amazing how you succeed in explaning so clearly and concisely such complex topic. Love your voice and the drawings too.
I noticed the same thing you remarked about common verbs being irregular. I noticed something else: Profanity is almost never irregular. The one notable exception is the past-tense verb "shat."
Most strong verbs were inherited from PIE, but there is at least one that was borrowed from Latin: skrībaną (write, English descendant is shrive). "Be" had two infinitives in some Germanic languages, and may have had three: beuną, wesaną, and sīną (I've never seen the last one, only its descendants sein/zijn, and it appears to be a West Germanic invention).
also the -ing suffix wasn't used for verbs but for the gerund form of nouns until the late 13th century.
interesting content. It's hard to explain for non-natives why a certain verb is different from the other, very informative.
0:38 "Glide" is actually an irregular verb in Swedish.
And THAT LANGUAGE IS AT TIMES RECOGNIZABLE WHEN WRITTEN to us English speakers. Also English at times is just a Nordic-Light language.
Very useful video for explaining to my students that irregular verbs are more regular than regular ones!!
Thanks :)
I loved the simple explanation ❤
Thank you so much ❤❤
Except what you're calling irregular verbs do follow predictable patterns. They're strong verbs. Ride-rode-ridden is perfectly regular within the class of strong verbs it's descended from. The patterns are not always absolutely predictable in Old English either. That doesn't make them irregular. The truly irregular verbs like go, do, and is were already irregular in Old English (and in Proto-Germanic). Have is a weak verb descended from "habban," whose conjugation is predictable. The theory about frequency of use is supported by the strong verbs resisting change, but it's change into weak verbs not "regular verbs." There's more than one kind of regular verb.
Thank you for sharing. Your videos are really useful for me. If you have time, you can make video about the order of adjectives. What origin and Why? Thank you so much :)
I love the way you explain a lot of interesting things about your language and so quickly .Thanks for.
Excellent vids.
infelizmente nós não, vemos estes vídeos mostrando a evolução das línguas românicas também
THank you very much!
I prefer leapt over leaped for consistency, although I wish the A wasn't there.
I wish we could adopt yode again or use wend instead of go to make things simpler.
I frequently use sleeped sometimes if I'm not thinking about it, becausd it makes sense to me. Also, I'm glad someone realizes wend is a thing. I had an entire dinner conversation debate with my family about whether or not wend was an actual word.
1:30 But did the change really not happen before the 1100 AD?
The same thing has happened in all of the Germanic languages, so I can't see how it happened that late.
Really nice video !
Very informative
How did we get the past tense for ... a vulger synonym for "defecate"? Hit stayed hit . Why didnt it become hat?
Thank you.
The explanation is really weak though. It doesn't give the reason for the regular, irregular and mixed class verbs (examples of mixed were given, but she lumped them in with 'irregular'.) She just called it either 'reinforcement' or 'resistance' in usage for why some verbs became irregular and others regular. If she had actually talked about Old and Middle English being a form of Anglo-Saxon German, and the verbs were conjugated similarly to all Germanic languages based on the vowel in the stem of the verb, it would have made more sense. She mentioned the stem vowel and that in pre-modern English the past tense was created by changing the vowel in consistent patterns, but she didn't relate that to modern English and German and how those predictable patterns are still in use. For example 'i-stem' verbs--sing/sang/sung; drink/drank/drunk; ring/rang/rung, or 'e-stem' verbs--see/saw/seen; eat/ate/eaten, etc. These are consistent patterns in all Germanic languages, including English. (In German: singt/sang/gesungen; trinkt/trank/getrunken; ringt/rang/gerungen; isst/ass/gegessen; sieht/sah/gesehen, etc.) Nor did she explain the difference in conjugation patterns between related transitive (regular) and intransitive verbs (irregular), e.g. set-sit, lay-lie, etc., which also follow the normal Germanic patterns. It isn't just haphazard or a matter of resistance and reinforcement over time. Irregular verbs with their vowel-stem changes to indicate tense are simply the nature of Germanic verbs, and there are clear reasons and patterns for the vowel changes. It's not a mystery. It's pretty clearly documented in the history of the Germanic languages. She presented English as if it were an isolated language unrelated to any others. If she had presented English as a Germanic language with common characteristics to other Germanic languages, it would have been more to the point.
Thanks Gary
Could you 'date' the pre-modern English period?
Anuja, pre-Modern English was before 1500...I think the dates they usually give is between 1150-1500 for Middle English, which developed out of Late Old English prior to the 1100s.
Brilliant!
She explained it is simplified
All your pedant explanation is totally useless. The aim of this video was just presenting the differences between regular verbs and irregular ones. Not to give a university lecture on language History.
omg thanks for this video it is so nice :)
Thanks! Always wondered.
Can you provide a reference for what you mentioned about “haved” and “maked”, please?
Are there languages where the verb "to be" is regular? Why is the verb to be irregular in so many languages, if not all languages (which use the verb)?
Esperanto? :P
Hank Some languages lack a verb for 'to be' and instead settle with just using pronouns in combination with other words.
Some of those languages are Hebrew (Ani, at/a), Japanese (Boku, Anata) and Turkish (Ben, sen), among others. They just place the pronouns before a noun to form sentences without a connective verb (the to be verb).
In Hebrew, you would just say "Ani student" and in Turkish "Ben öğrenci". In Japanese, people almost always omit the pronouns all together, relying on suffixes (To, ha, ga, etc) for the sentence to make sense to the listener.
When you'll see the Finnish grammar...
Oh boy.
Ben Öğrenci is totally nonsense in Turkish. No one Uses that. Imagine someone saying I Student. We say Ben bir öğrenciyim or Ben öğrenciyim.
probably am means -yim in that usage. bir means a/an. Not a linguist expert.
Also There are no irregular verbs in Turkish. Not sure about to be.
well the Norwegian to be came close to that, the infinitive is å være but once it's conjugated it becomes jeg er (i am) du er (you are, pretty rhymes btw) han/hun er ( he /she is) and so on.
this video was very informative !
Thank You !
I love this videos
I'm surprised you didn't mention the Germanic ablaut or umlaut in the video.
Still, I look forward to the continuation in the form of "Why do we have irregular plural forms". Actually, why do you have (not we), as English is not my L1.
They did another video about umlauts.
Honestly the form before the 'ed' makes more sense to me, but I guess it would be slightly harder to remember for some people.
I was wondering about that sometimes, I didn't know there was an answer to it!
Thank you!
If we go from the ideas stated in the video, can we prove that the English people in the past sang more than they danced? Can anyone confirm this, like a pro or anything? I'm actually pretty curious.
We would have to take into account that 'dance' comes from Old French 'dansier', and dansier's origen is uncertain, although suspected to be from Old Frisian, from a word meaning quiver or tremble. As I'm no expert you can read more here www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dance What I find curious is that dance replaced an already existing verb, which came from Latin, so I wonder what word was used before.
Anthony, Old Frisian is definitely a German dialect, and all modern Germanic languages use some form of 'dance', usually with a 't' however...tanzen or some variation of that. Even Slavic languages use a derivative. Perhaps, the Italian 'ballare' and Spanish 'bailar' from the Latin 'ballo' is the word that 'dance' replaced.
Gary Lorentzen And curiously enough, Spanish uses both bailar and danzar, with danzar being quite more formal and related to art in general
it is difficult to follow what is being said while something is being written and one can't be a listener and a reader at the time
That is when you rewind and/or pause the video.
why in english do we say for W, Double You, when its two Vs. Other languages say Double Vee, so why not english?
I believe that's because two u's were used for that sound "uu". Only later this was changed to a single letter "w".
I'm not too informed on linguistic history, but basically U and V were the same letter in the past.
Google "washington university 1857"
you'll see that a university made in 1857 still is written as " vniversity ", with a v instead of an u.
My language is worse we say double-u but there are no y sound in u
Am I the only one thinking it should be 'glide - glid'?
Does this principle apply to all languages?
Ablauts in verbs is mostly a Germanic thing. But you can find ablauts in other Indo-European languages as well, especially Greek.
Hi.
Who is talking and who is writing?
Arika Okrent is talking
Sean O'Neill is drawing/writing
Good Lord ! YOu know so much
I would just accept how complicated English is and put in a hundred percent effort to be good at it ^_^
Irregular verbs? Shouldn't they be called *strong verbs* just like in other Germanic languages?
"Ride" and "stand" are strong verbs. "Hit" and "cut" are irregular weak verbs.
Strong and weak are just another way of saying irregular and regular. It's not any different.
Agreed, English has 'strong' (irregular) verbs, 'weak' (regular) verbs, irregular weak verbs and mixed (regular strong verbs). Hit and cut are irregular weak verbs. 'Bring' and 'think' are mixed class verbs that have a vowel-stem change and a regular suffix (t or ed)--brings/brought/has brought; thinks/thought/has thought. These are also considered 'mixed' in German--bringt/brachte/hat gebracht; denkt/dachte/hat gedacht.
Actually "bring" and "think" are irregular weak verbs, not strong. They have a nasal infix which caused a vowel change. The mixed verbs are verbs like "swell", which is class-3 strong with a weak past tense.
Strong verbs would be more appropriate.
Has youtube killed this channel with new rules a few years ago?
i'm going crazy. english isn't my first language
For my online lessons
I eaten to many cake and gotten sickened
Haha, my language has only 8 irregular verbs.
My language has only 3 regular verbs! what language do u speak?
Two irregular verbs disliked this video, as of this comment.
XD
shis
A very disorderly product.
1st
forza lazio
get rid of such silly language