§ 298. In the English language the tense corresponding with the Greek aorist and the Latin forms like _vixi_, is formed after two modes; 1, as in _fell_, _sang_, and _took_, from _fall_, _sing_, and _take_, by changing the vowel of the present: 2, as in _moved_ and _wept_, from _move_ and _weep_, by the addition of -d or -t; the -d or -t not being found in the original word, but being a fresh element added to it. In forms, on the contrary, like _sang_ and _fell_, no addition being made, no new element appears. The vowel, indeed, is changed, but nothing is added. Verbs, then, of the first sort, may be said to form their præterites out of themselves; whilst verbs of the second sort require something from without. To speak in a metaphor, words like _sang_ and _fell_ are comparatively independent. Be this as it may, the German grammarians call the tenses formed by a change of vowel the _strong_ tenses, the _strong_ verbs, the _strong_ conjugation, or the _strong_ order; and those formed by the addition of d or t, the _weak_ tenses, the _weak_ verbs, the _weak_ conjugation, or the _weak_ order. _Bound_, _spoke_, _gave_, _lay_, &c., are _strong_; _moved_, _favoured_, _instructed_, &c., are _weak_. * * * * * CHAPTER XXIII. THE STRONG TENSES. § 299. The strong præterites are formed from the present by changing the vowel, as _sing_, _sang_; _speak_, _spoke_. In Anglo-Saxon, several præterites change, in their plural, the vowel of their singular; as Ic sang, _I sang_. | We sungon, _we sung_. Þu sunge, _thou sungest_. | Ge sungon, _ye sung_. He sang, _he sang_. | Hi sungon, _they sung_. The bearing of this fact upon the præterites has already been indicated. In a great number of words we have a double form, as _ran_ and _run_, _sang_ and _sung_, _drank_ and _drunk_, &c. One of these forms is derived from the singular, and the other from the plural. In cases where but one form is preserved, that form is not necessarily the singular; indeed, it is often the plural;--e.g., Ic fand, _I found_, we fundon, _we found_, are the Anglo-Saxon forms. Now the present word _found_ comes, not from the singular _fand_, but from the plural _fundon_; although in the Lowland Scotch dialect and in the old writers, the _singular_ form occurs; Donald Caird finds orra things, Where Allan Gregor _fand_ the tings.--SCOTT. § 300. The verbs wherein the double form of the present præterite is thus explained, fall into two classes. 1. In the first class, the Anglo-Saxon forms were á in the singular, and i in the plural; as-- _Sing._ | _Plur._ | Sceán | Scinon (_we shone_). Arás | Arison (_we arose_). Smát | Smiton (_we smote_). This accounts for-- _Present._ _Præt. from Sing. form._ _Præt. from Plur. form._