Editing Germanic weak verb (section)

==Weak and strong verbs==
Weak verbs should be contrasted with [[Germanic strong verb|strong verbs]], which form their past tenses by means of ''[[Indo-European ablaut|ablaut]]'' (vowel gradation: ''sing - sang - sung''). Most verbs in the early stages of the Germanic languages were strong. However, as the ablaut system is no longer productive except in rare cases of analogy. Almost all new verbs in Germanic languages are weak, and the majority of the original strong verbs have become weak by analogy.

===Strong to weak transformations===
As an example of the rather common process of originally strong verbs becoming weak, we may consider the development from the Old English strong verb {{lang|ang|scūfan}} to modern English ''shove'':
* {{lang|ang|scūfan scēaf scofen}} (strong class 2)
* ''shove shoved shoved''
Many hundreds of weak verbs in contemporary English go back to Old English strong verbs.

In some cases, a verb has become weak in the preterite but not in the participle and may be thought of as "semi-strong" (not a technical term). Dutch has a number of examples:
*{{lang|nl|wassen waste gewassen}} ("to wash")
*{{lang|nl|lachen lachte gelachen}} ("to laugh")

An example in English is:
*''sow sowed sown'' (strong class 7 with weak preterite)

Often, the old strong participle may survive as an adjective long after it has been replaced with a weak form in verbal constructions. The English adjective ''molten'' is an old strong participle of ''melt'', which is now a purely weak verb with the participle ''melted''. The participle {{lang|de|gebacken}} of the German verb {{lang|de|backen}} (to bake), is gradually being replaced by {{lang|de|gebackt}}, but the adjective is always {{lang|de|gebacken}} (baked).

===Weak to strong transformations===
The reverse process is very rare and can also be partial, producing "semi-strong" verbs as in ''show showed shown'' (originally a weak verb with its participle modelled on ''sown'')

Weak verbs that develop strong forms are often unstable. A typical example is German {{lang|de|fragen}} (to ask), which is historically weak and is still weak in standard German. However, for a time in the 18th century, the forms {{lang|de|fragen, frug, gefragen}} by analogy with, for example, {{lang|de|tragen}} (to carry) were also considered acceptable in the standard. They survive today (along with a present tense {{lang|de|frägt}}) in the [[Rhinelandic regiolect]] and underlying dialects. In Dutch, the new strong past {{lang|nl|vroeg}} of the cognate {{lang|nl|vragen}} is standard today, but its past participle is weak {{lang|nl|gevraagd}} (though some dialects do have {{lang|nl|gevrogen}}).