Tagged Questions
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vote
0answers
45 views
How the English verb conjugation does not have different suffixes? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What happened to the “-est” and “-eth” verb suffixes in English? How were they once used?
How do you conjugate Early Modern English verbs (other than ...
6
votes
1answer
130 views
When was the word “scroll” first used as a verb?
We all know that a scroll is a roll of parchment used in ancient times. A scroll can be rolled up or down, and that must have been the metaphor the creator of the computer-term "scroll" had in mind.
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6
votes
2answers
500 views
Why is “can” such an odd verb?
The English verb can is very strange for several reasons:
It drops the to on any infinitive verb forms that follow it. That is, unlike in the verb want in the sentence I want to eat, you would not ...
5
votes
2answers
127 views
Dialectal and historical usage of “not care” in the meaning of “not mind”
In standard Present-day English, "I don't care to be there" means the same as "I don't wish to be there." Apparently, this is not the case in some present and historical dialects. Wylene P. Dial ...
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1answer
435 views
Origin of pluralisation of verbs and nouns in English
From this question, I was just wondering why plural nouns use the ending -s, while the exact same ending is used for the third person singular form of verbs.
How did we get into this weird situation? ...
11
votes
1answer
303 views
Ordering of English sound changes in verbal morphology
As we all know, the Early Modern English 3sg verbal ending -eth has become -s in Modern English. This presumably happened in two steps:
Elision of the unstressed e in the final syllable
Changing ...
12
votes
2answers
764 views
{wend, went, went} changed into {go, went, gone}
I have heard that the verb go used to be wend in olden days. I am curious if there is any historical or other explanation why the past form of wend, i.e. went, is still in use while the simple present ...
