s. 395. The verb substantive is generally dealt with as an irregular verb. This is inaccurate. The true notion is that the idea of _being_ or _existing_ is expressed by four different verbs, each of which is defective in some of its parts. The parts, however, that are wanting in one verb, are made up by the inflections of one of the others. There is, for example, no praeterite of the verb _am_, and no present of the verb _was_. The absence, however, of the present form of _was_ is made up by the word _am_, and the absence of the praeterite form of _am_ is made up by the word _was_. s. 396. _Was._--Defective, except in the praeterite tense, where it is found both in the indicative and conjunctive. _Indicative._ | _Conjunctive._ | _Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._ | 1. Was. Were. | 1. Were. Were. 2. Wast. Were. | 2. Wert. Were. 3. Was. Were. | 3. Were. Were. In the older stages of the Gothic languages the word has both a full conjugation and a regular one. In Anglo-Saxon it has an infinitive, a participle present, and a participle past. In Moeso-Gothic it is inflected throughout with _-s_; as _visa_, _vas_, _v[^e]sum_, _visans_. In that language it has the power of the Latin _maneo_ = _to remain_. The _-r_ first appears in the Old High German; _wisu_, _was_, _w[^a]rum[^e]s_, _wesaner_. In Norse the _s_ entirely disappears, and the word is inflected with _r_ throughout; _vera_, _var_, _vorum_, &c. s. 397. _Be._--Inflected in Anglo-Saxon throughout the present tense, both indicative and subjunctive; found also as an {345} infinitive _be['o]n_, as a gerund to _beonne_, and as a participle _beonde_. In the present English its inflection is as follows:-- _Present._ _Indicative._ | _Conjunctive._ | _Imperative._ _Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._ | | 1. -- -- | Be. Be. | -- -- 2. Beest. -- | Beest? Be. | Be. Be. 3. -- -- | Be. Be, Bin. | -- -- | | _Infin._ To be. _Pres. P._ Being. _Past Part._ Been. The line in Milton beginning _If thou beest he_--(P. L. b. ii.), leads to the notion that the antiquated form _beest_ is not indicative, but conjunctive. Such, however, is not the case: _b['y]st_ in Anglo-Saxon is indicative, the conjunctive form being _be['o]_.--_And every thing that pretty bin_ (Cymbeline).--Here the word _bin_ is the conjunctive plural, in Anglo-Saxon _b['e]on_; so that the words _every thing_ are to be considered equivalent to the plural form _all things_. The phrase in Latin would stand thus, _quotquot pulcra sint_; in Greek thus, [Greek: ha an kala ei]. The _indicative_ plural is, in Anglo-Saxon, not _be['o]n_, but _be['o]dh_ and _be['o]_.