In Moeso-Gothic, as in Latin, the two forms are dealt with as a single tense; _l['a]il[^o]_ being called the praeterite of _l['a]ia_, and _sv[^o]r_ the praeterite of _svara_. The true view, however, is that in Moeso-Gothic, as in Latin, there are two past tenses, each having a certain latitude of meaning, and each, in certain words, replacing the other. The reduplicate form, in other words, the perfect tense, is current in none of the Gothic languages except the Moeso-Gothic. A trace of it is found in the Anglo-Saxon of the seventh century in the word _heht_, which is considered to be _h[^e]-ht_, the Moeso-Gothic _h['a]ih['a]it_, _vocavi_. This statement is taken from the Cambridge Philological Museum, ii. 378. _Did_ from _do_ is also considered to be a reduplicate form. s. 362. 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 {306} vowel, indeed, is changed, but nothing is added. Verbs, then, of the first sort, may be said to form their praeterites 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. For the proof that the division of verbs into weak and strong is a natural division, see the Chapter on Conjugation. * * * * * {307} CHAPTER XXIII. THE STRONG TENSES. s. 363. The strong praeterites are formed from the present by changing the vowel, as _sing_, _sang_, _speak_, _spoke_. The first point in the history of these tenses that the reader is required to be aware of, is stated in the Chapter upon the Numbers, viz., that, in Anglo-Saxon, several praeterites change, in their plural, the vowel of their singular; as Ic sang, _I sang_. We sungon, _we sung_. Thu sunge, _thou sungest_. Ge sungon, _ye sung_. He sang, _he sang_. Hi sungon, _they sung_. As a general rule, the second singular has the same vowel with the plural persons, as _burne_, _thou burntest_, plural _burnon_, _we burnt_.