(i) #The Infinitive# had already in Northumbrian OE. lost final _-n_: _drīfa_ 'to drive'. Hence in ME. of the North and N. Midlands the ending is _-e_, which becomes silent at varying rates during the fourteenth century; e.g. _dryue_ I 171, _to luf_ IV _a_ 17. In the South and S. Midlands the common ending is _-e_, e.g. _telle_ III 3, which usually remains syllabic to the end of the century; but _-(e)n_ is also found, especially in verse to make a rime or to avoid hiatus: e.g. _sein_ (: _aȝein_) XII _a_ 27; _to parte and ȝiven half his good_ XII _b_ 201. (ii) #The Present Participle# (OE. _drīfende_) in the North and N. Midlands ends in _-and(e)_, though _-yng(e)_, _-ing(e)_ is beginning to appear in V, VII, XVI, XVII. In S. Midlands the historical ending _-ende_ still prevails in Gower; but Chaucer has more commonly _-yng(e)_; and in IX, XI, both late texts, only _-yng(e)_ appears. In the South _-yng(e)_ is established as early as the beginning of the century, e.g. in II. N.B. Carefully distinguish the verbal noun which always ends in _-yng(e)_. Early confusion resulted in the transference of this ending to the participle. (iii) #Present Indicative.# (_a_) Singular: OE. 1 _drīfe_, 2 _drīf(e)s(t)_, 3 _drīf(e)ð_ (late Northumbrian _drīfes_). In ME. _-e_, _-est_, _-eþ_ are still the regular endings for the South and most of the Midlands. Shortened forms like _fint_ = _findeþ_ II 239; _stant_ = _standeþ_ XII _a_ 74 are commonest in the South, where in OE. they were a feature of West Saxon and Kentish as distinguished from Anglian. Distinct are the Northern and N. Midland _mas(e)_ 'makes', _tas_ 'takes', with contracted infinitives _ma_, _ta_; and _bus_ 'behoves', which Chaucer uses in his imitation of Northern English, _Reeves Tale_ 172. In N. Midlands the modern 3rd sg. _-(e)s_ is common (V, VI, but not in earlier I). Farther North it is invariable (IV, X, XVI, XVII). The distribution of _-es_ as the ending of the 2nd sg. is the same, and it is extended even to the 1st person. (_b_) Plural: OE. _drīfað_ (late Northumbrian _drīfas_). Only Southern ME. retains the OE. inflexion as _-eþ_ (II, III, XIII). The Midland ending, whence the modern form derives, is _-e(n)_; though in the N. Midlands _-es_ occasionally appears. Northern has regularly _-es_, _unless the personal pronoun immediately precedes_, when the ending is _-e_, as in the Midlands, e.g. _þei make_ XVI 103. N.B. In applying this test, care must be taken to exclude inversions, which are subject to special rules; to distinguish the subjunctive (e.g. _falle_ XIII _a_ 52, _drawe_ XIII _b_ 6) from the indicative; and, generally, to choose examples that are syntactically free from doubt, because concord of number is not always logical in ME. SUMMARY. OE. 1. sg. _drīf-e_ 2. _drīf-es(t)_ 3. _drīf-eð_ (Nth. _-es_) pl. _drīf-að_ (Nth. _-as_)