Early Modern English

Conjugate Verbs

Introduction

Early Modern English is the stage of the English language from late 15th century, to the transition to Modern English, in the mid-to-late 17th century.

The verb

Compared with today's English, the Early Modern English verbs have the following features:

• 3rd person singular ends in '-eth' in addition to '-s'.
• The second-person singular indicative was marked in both the present and past tenses with -st or -est; e.g. 'thou walk(e)st', 'thou walkedst'

Sample Verb: have

Infinitive	Participle
	Present	Preterit
to have	having	had

Person	Present	Preterit
I	have	had
thou	hast	hadst
he; she; it	hath; has	had
we	have	had
ye	have	had
they	have	had

Sample Verb: be

Infinitive	Participle
	Present	Preterit
to be	being	been

Person	Present	Preterit
I	am	was
thou	art	wast; wert
he; she; it	is	was
we	are; be	were
ye	are; be	were
they	are; be	were