Editing Germanic weak verb (section)

==General description==
In Germanic languages, weak verbs form their [[preterite]]s and [[past participle]]s by means of a [[Dental consonant|dental]] [[Affix|suffix]], an inflection that contains a {{IPA|/t/}} or {{IPA|/d/}} sound or similar. (For comparative purposes, they will be referred to as a dental, but in some of the languages, including most varieties of English, {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}} are [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]] instead.) In all Germanic languages, the preterite and past participle forms of weak verbs are formed from the same stem.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
! Infinitive
! Preterite
|-
| rowspan=2 | English (regular)
| ''to love''
| ''loved''
|-
| ''to laugh''
| ''laughed''
|-
| rowspan=4 | [[English irregular verbs|English (irregular)]]
| ''to say''
| ''said''
|-
| ''to send''
| ''sent''
|-
| ''to buy''
| ''bought''
|-
| ''to set''
| ''set''
|-
| rowspan=2 | German
| {{lang|de|lieben}} (love)
| {{lang|de|liebte}}
|-
| {{lang|de|bringen}} (bring)
| {{lang|de|brachte}}
|}

Historically, the pronunciation of the suffix in the vast majority of [[Regular verb|weak verbs]] (all four classes) was {{IPA|[ð]}} but, in most sources discussing [[Proto-Germanic]], it is spelled {{angbr|d}} by convention. In the [[West Germanic languages]], the [[suffix]] [[Fortition|hardened]] to {{IPA|[d]}}, but it remained a [[fricative]] in the other early [[Germanic languages]] ([[Gothic language|Gothic]] and often in [[Old Norse]]).

In the [[English language]], the dental is a {{IPAc-en|d}} after a [[voiced consonant]] (''loved'') or [[vowel]] (''laid''), a {{IPAc-en|t}} after a [[voiceless consonant]] (''laughed''), and {{IPAc-en|ɪ|d}} after the [[Dental consonant|dentals]]/alveolars {{IPAc-en|t}} and {{IPAc-en|d}} themselves, but English uses the suffix spelling {{angbr|ed}} regardless of pronunciation, with the exception of a few verbs with irregular spellings.{{efn |Often also somewhat irregular past tenses as well: ''make'' {{IPAc-en|m|eɪ|k}}, made {{IPAc-en|m|eɪ|d}} (from earlier ''maked''); ''say'' {{IPAc-en|s|eɪ}}, ''said'' {{IPAc-en|s|ɛ|d}}, ({{abbr|<|derived from}} [[Middle English|Μid.Εngl.]] {{wikt-lang|enm|saie}}, {{wikt-lang|enm|saied}}); {{wikt-lang|en|sleep}} {{IPAc-en|s|l|iː|p}}, {{wikt-lang|en|slept}} {{IPAc-en|s|l|ɛ|p|t}}, and so on.}}

In [[Dutch language|Dutch]], {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}} are distributed as in English provided there is a following [[vowel]]. When there is no following vowel, [[final devoicing|terminal devoicing]] leads to the universal {{IPA|/t/}}. Nevertheless, Dutch still distinguishes between the [[spelling]]s in {{angbr|d}} and {{angbr|t}} even in final position: see the [['t kofschip]] rule.

In [[Afrikaans]], which descends from Dutch, the [[past tense]] has fallen out of use altogether, and the past participle is marked only with the prefix {{lang|af|ge-}}. Therefore, the suffix has disappeared along with the forms that originally contained it.

In [[German language|German]] the dental is always {{IPA|/t/}} and always spelled {{angbr|t}} because of the third phase of the [[High German consonant shift]] (d→t).

In [[Low German]], the dental ending of the preterite tense was originally {{IPA|/d/}} or {{IPA|/t/}}, according to the stem of the verb. However the ending has fallen out in pronunciation, starting in the 17th century when the preterite was written with the ending {{lang|de|-er}} representing the sound {{IPA|[ɐ]}}, which was already the last remnant of the former ''-de'' and ''-te'' endings of Middle Low German. Now, the only Low German verbs that still show a remnant of a dental ending are {{lang|nds|leggen}}, which has the preterite {{lang|nds|leed}}, and the verb {{lang|nds|hebben}}, which has {{lang|nds|harr}} with old ''r''-ending from the Middle Low German dental.

In [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], the dental was originally a voiced dental fricative {{IPA|/ð/}}. It is preserved as such after vowels, voiced fricatives, and {{IPA|/r/}} but has been hardened to a stop {{IPA|/d/}} after nasals and {{IPA|/l/}}. It and has been devoiced to {{IPA|/t/}} after voiceless consonants and in some other cases (in most Old Norse texts, the alternation is already found in heavy roots, but the light ones preserve {{IPA|/ð/}}). Furthermore, the voicing contrast between {{IPA|/d/}} and {{IPA|/t/}} has been replaced in modern Icelandic by an [[Aspirated consonant|aspiration]] contrast, which may not be realized phonetically in all the relevant positions.

The situation of early [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] was similar to Icelandic, but intervocalic {{IPA|/ð/}} eventually disappeared. In the verbs in which it remains, the dental is {{IPA|/t/}} or {{IPA|/d/}}, depending on conjugation class and [[Norwegian dialects|dialect]]. It is spelled accordingly. In [[Nynorsk]], it can be different in the preterite and the past participle.

[[Swedish language|Swedish]] has a similar situation to that of Norwegian, but the dental is retained in the spelling, even between vowels. Some informal spellings indicate a lost dental, such as in {{lang|sv|sa}} ("said") from the standard spelling {{lang|sv|sade}}.