Editing Germanic weak verb (section)

===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).