Contracted Verbs
Another small group of verbs are the so-called "contracted" verbs, named for their characteristic shortened forms alongside their regular forms:
- "lân" (from "lâzen", Modern German 'lassen', English 'to let')
- "vân" (from "vâhen", Modern German 'anfangen', English 'to begin')
- "hân" (from "hâhen", Modern German 'hängen', English 'to hang')
- "hân" (from "hâben", Modern German 'haben', English 'to have') This verb generally exhibits the contracted forms in the indicative and the uncontracted forms in the subjunctive.
Read more about this topic: Middle High German Verbs
Famous quotes containing the words contracted and/or verbs:
“Had it not been for you, I should have remained what I was when we first met, a prejudiced, narrow-minded being, with contracted sympathies and false knowledge, wasting my life on obsolete trifles, and utterly insensible to the privilege of living in this wondrous age of change and progress.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“He crafted his writing and loved listening to those tiny explosions when the active brutality of verbs in revolution raced into sweet established nouns to send marching across the page a newly commissioned army of words-on-maneuvers, all decorated in loops, frets, and arrowlike flourishes.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)