/Present/ I can be bit /Past/ I could be bit /Present Perfect/ (wanting) /Past Perfect/ I could of been bit /Imperative Mode/ (wanting) /Infinitive Mode/ (wanting) A study of this paradigm reveals several plain tendencies. One has just been discussed: the addition of a degenerated form of /have/ to the preterite of the auxiliary, and its use in place of the auxiliary itself. Another is the use of /will/ instead of /shall/ in the first person future. /Shall/ is confined to a sort of optative, indicating much more than mere intention, and even here it is yielding to /will/. Yet another is the consistent use of the transferred preterite in the passive. Here the rule in correct English is followed faithfully, though the perfect participle [Pg209] employed is not the English participle. "I am /broke/" is a good example. Finally, there is the substitution of /was/ for /were/ and of /am/ for /be/ in the past and present of the subjunctive. In this last case American is in accord with the general movement of English, though somewhat more advanced. /Be/, in the Shakespearean form of "where /be/ thy brothers?" was expelled from the present indicative two hundred years ago, and survives today only in dialect. And as it thus yielded to /are/ in the indicative, it now seems destined to yield to /am/ and /is/ in the subjunctive. It remains, of course, in the future indicative: "I will /be/." In American its conjugation coalesces with that of /am/ in the following manner: /Present/ I am /Past Perfect/ I had of ben /Present Perfect/ I bin (or ben) /Future/ I will be /Past/ I was /Future Perfect/ (wanting) And in the subjunction: /Present/ If I am /Past Perfect/ If I had of ben /Past/ If I was