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weak verb. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
weak verb, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
weak verb in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
weak verb you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Calque of German schwaches Verb, equivalent to weak + verb.
Noun
weak verb (plural weak verbs)
- (grammar) One of a class of Germanic verbs which use a dental affix appended to the stem to indicate tense; a Germanic weak verb.
1866, William Francis Collier, A Grammar of the English Language, with a Sketch of its History, etc., Edinburgh: Thomas Laurie, →OCLC, page 36:A Weak Verb adds d, ed, or t, to the Present Tense, to make the Past Tense; as, invite, invited; betray, betrayed; step, stept.
- (grammar, linguistics) A member of a "weak" class in a language with two or more verb classes.
2009, Charles Häberl, The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, →ISBN, page 177:Three basic root consonant classes exist: the strong verb, roots with weak initial root consonant (I-weak verbs), roots with weak final consonants (III-weak verbs), and a composite class...
- (grammar) A verb the conjugation of which is regular.
1998, Katrin Linder, “Overgeneralization revisited: the case of German past participles”, in Ray Fabri, Albert Ortmann, Teresa Parodi, editors, Models of inflection, Tübingen: M. Niemeyer, page 161:Storage clearly is assumed for irregular verb forms. But what about regular or weak verb forms?
Usage notes
- Although some descriptions of grammar use weak verb as a synonym for regular verb, many grammarians consider this usage incorrect or imprecise (for instance, tell is a Germanic weak verb, yet its past tense and past participle forms are irregular: told and told).
Translations
grammar: Germanic verb which uses dental affix to indicate tense
grammar: member of a "weak" verb class
grammar: verb with regular conjugation
Translations to be checked