sculan
FOCUSED PRACTICE · 1 PARADIGM · 4 FORMS
shall, must
Core drill · 200×
0 / 200 correct repetitions
- 1 Infinitive
- 2 Pres. 1/3 Sg.
- 3 Pres. Plural
- 4 Pret. Singular
0 / 4 forms · 4 lines
Preterite-Present Verbs — Principal Parts
Historical Grammar
Preterit-Present Verbs. (See § 19.)
These verbs are called Preterit-Present because the present tense (indicative and subjunctive) of each of them is, in form, a strong preterit, the old present having been displaced by the new. They all have weak preterits. Most of the Mn.E. Auxiliary Verbs belong to this class.
wiste,
witan, wisse, wiston, gewiten, to know [to wit, wot].
āgan, āhte, āhton. āgen (adj.), to possess [owe].
gecunnen to know, can [uncouth, cunning].
cunnan, cūðe, cūðon, cūð (adj.),
durran, dorste, dorston, — to dare.
sculan, sceolde, sceoldon, — shall.
meahte, meahton,
magan, mihte, mihton, — to be able, may.
mōtan, mōste, mōston, — may, must.
NOTE.—The change in meaning from preterit to present, with retention of the preterit form, is not uncommon in other languages. Several examples are found in Latin and Greek (cf. nōvi and oἶδa, I know). Mn.E. has gone further still: āhte and mōste, which had already suffered the loss of their old preterits (āh, mōt), have been forced back again into the present (ought, must). Having exhausted, therefore, the only means of preterit formation known to Germanic, the strong and the weak, it is not likely that either ought or must will ever develop distinct preterit forms.
Loquentes Practice Reference
Smith sets out the seven preterite-present verbs — witan, āgan, cunnan, durran, sculan, magan, mōtan — as a spaced list, one line per verb, with alternate preterite forms printed on the line above (wiste beside wisse, meahte beside mihte). That layout has no column structure in the source, so it is reproduced above as Smith’s own lines rather than re-typeset as a table. No Smith table of these stems exists; none has been invented.