1208: Lost Strong Forms (be-) Mar 31, 2018

In Modern German, it is common to see past participles begin with 'ge-' or 'be-' just as '-ed' would be used in English. However, because English is a Germanic language, not only do the German words also end in the very similar '-t', but a number of English participles begin with 'be-' as well. Some strong verbs have morphed over time such that they have lost certain forms, such as 'shave', which retains 'shaven' participially, but also has 'shaved' in the past tense (rather than 'shoove', as it belongs to the same class of verbs as 'take'). This loss is present in the participial forms of other words too; although 'held' from 'hold' is already not a common form for the past tense or participial (it is the same for both), the original participle was 'beholden', as it belongs to the same class as other verbs like 'fall' (befallen).

If you can think of others that still have this, or have lost certain forms over time, please include it as a comment.

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