weak verb

English

Etymology

Calque of German schwaches Verb, equivalent to weak +‎ verb.

Noun

weak verb (plural weak verbs)

1. (grammar) One of a class of Germanic verbs which use a dental affix appended to the stem to indicate tense; a Germanic weak verb.
   • 1866, William Francis Collier, A Grammar of the English Language, with a Sketch of its History, etc., Edinburgh: Thomas Laurie, →OCLC, page 36:

     A Weak Verb adds d, ed, or t, to the Present Tense, to make the Past Tense; as, invite, invited; betray, betrayed; step, stept.

2. (grammar, linguistics) A member of a "weak" class in a language with two or more verb classes.
3. (grammar) A verb the conjugation of which is regular.
   • 1998, Katrin Linder, “Overgeneralization revisited: the case of German past participles”, in Ray Fabri, Albert Ortmann, and Teresa Parodi, editors, Models of inflection, Tübingen: M. Niemeyer, page 161:

     Storage clearly is assumed for irregular verb forms. But what about regular or weak verb forms?

Usage notes

• Although some descriptions of grammar use weak verb as a synonym for regular verb, many grammarians consider this usage incorrect or imprecise (for instance, tell is a Germanic weak verb, yet its past tense and past participle forms are irregular: told and told).

Related terms

• strong verb

Translations

Translations

• Danish: svagt verbum n
• Dutch: zwak werkwoord n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: verbe faible (fr) m
• German: schwaches Verb (de) n