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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 present tense)?

In all the languages I know about, including German - the cousin of the English language, all the verbs use different suffixes for conjugation. English uses a far simpler conjugation method (only add s for he/she) and has some irregular verbs.

My questions are:

Are there other languages with similar grammar for conjugation?

How this special feature of the language came to light? Is there info about the time/way/reasons it was formed?

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    The question "Are there other languages with similar grammar for conjugation?" does not seem to be covered by the possible duplicates.
    – Gareth Rees
    Commented Aug 28, 2012 at 10:41
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    Vasile, there are in fact lots and lots of languages with little or no conjugation of their verbs. These are known as isolating languages, and aside from a few examples in Europe, there are hundreds of languages like this throughout Asia and Africa.
    – JSBձոգչ
    Commented Aug 28, 2012 at 12:21
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    @Gareth: first of all, this is English Language and Usage, not Other Languages and Usage. Secondly, the accepted answer on the first question actually does say "[paradigm leveling] is not uncommon in the languages of the world", with a link to Wikipedia that has examples of paradigm leveling in other languages including German.
    – RegDwigнt
    Commented Aug 28, 2012 at 12:23
  • @JSBձոգչ Thanks! Reading the linked articles and following wiki references I was able to make a clear idea on this subject. Probably a list of common examples fort the first question would be interesting, but ЯegDwight has a point here.
    – Sam
    Commented Aug 28, 2012 at 13:09
  • Since this question is closed for answers, I'll leave this as a comment: Yes, Norse languages do not conjugate for subject using suffixes, and when the Vikings invaded the British isles, they did off with the thing in English as well, apart from the very stubborn -s in 3rd person singular.
    – RolKau
    Commented Jul 29, 2018 at 8:21

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