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In language learning, the principal parts of a verb are the most fundamental forms of a verb that can be conjugated into any form of the verb. The concept originates in the humanist Latin schools, where students learned verbs by chanting them in the four key forms from which all other forms can be deduced, for example:
- ferō – ferre – tulī – lātum ('to carry')
Not all languages have to be taught in this way. In French, for example, regular verbs can be deduced from a single form, the infinitive, and irregular verbs are too random to be systematized under fixed parts. But the concept can be carried over to many languages in which the verbs have some kind of "regular irregularity", i.e. irregularity always occurs at the same place in an otherwise regular system.
Although the term 'principal part' is usually applied to verbs, the same phenomenon can be found in some languages in nouns and other word types.
Classical languages
Latin
In Latin, most verbs have four principal parts. For example, the verb for "to carry" is given as portō – portāre – portāvī – portātum, where portō is the first-person singular present active indicative ("I carry"), portāre is the present active infinitive ("to carry"), portāvī is the first-person singular perfect active indicative ("I carried"), and portātum is the neuter supine. Most of the verb forms in Latin derive from the first two principal parts: portābō, "I shall carry", is derived from the root portā-, taken from the present infinitive. However, all active perfect forms are derived from the third principal part (so portāveram, "I had carried", is taken from portāv-) while the perfect participle (portātus, portāta, portātum, "having been carried") is derived from the supine and is used to form the perfect passive participle with the auxiliary verb sum (such as portātum est, "it has been carried"). The auxiliary verb is often dropped when writing poetry in Latin.
For many Latin verbs, the principal parts are predictable: portō shown above uses a single stem, port-, and all principal parts are derived from them with the endings -ō – -āre – -āvī – -ātum. Others have more complicated forms: regō ("I rule") has the perfect form rēxī and perfect participle rēctum, derived as *reg-sī and *reg-tum. A handful of verbs, such as sum – esse – fuī – futūrum ("to be"), are simply irregular.
A number of verbs have fewer than four principal parts: deponent verbs, such as hortŏr – hortāri – hortātus sum, "to exhort", lack a perfect form, as do semi-deponent verbs, such as audeō – audēre – ausus sum, "to dare"; in both cases, passive forms are treated as active, so all perfect forms are covered by the perfect participle. A handful of verbs are also defective, including the verb ōdī – ōdisse, "to hate", which only has perfect forms derived from a single stem.
Ancient Greek
Verbs in Ancient Greek have six principal parts: present (I), future (II), aorist (III), perfect (IV), perfect middle (V) and aorist passive (VI), each listed in its first-person singular form:
- Part I forms the entire present system, as well as the imperfect.
- Part II forms the future tense in the active and middle voices.
- Part III forms the aorist in the active and middle voices.
- Part IV forms the perfect and pluperfect in the active voice, and the (exceedingly rare) future perfect, active.
- Part V forms the perfect and pluperfect in the middle voice, and the (rare) future perfect, middle.
- Part VI forms the aorist and future in the passive voice.
One principal part can sometimes be predicted from another, but not with any certainty. For some classes of verbs, however, all principal parts can be predicted given the first one.
Germanic languages
English
Excluding four common irregular verbs, the principal parts of all other English verbs are the infinitive, preterite and past participle. All forms of these English verbs can be derived from the three principal parts. Four verbs have an unpredictable 3rd person singular form and the verb "to be" is so irregular it has seven separate forms. Lists or recitations of principal parts in English often omit the third principal part's auxiliary verb, rendering it identical to its grammatically distinct participial form. For example, the verb "to take" has the principal parts take – took – (have) taken. The verb "to bet" has bet – bet – (have) bet and the verb "to break" has break – broke – (have) broken. With irregular verbs the simple present 3S (he, she, it) is derived from infinitive+'s' with the exception of spelling changes such as catch – catches, fly – flies and teach – teaches, which follow the same rules for regular 3S verbs.
Examples of irregular verbs and their principal parts
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Regular verbs
Most verbs are regular enough that all forms can be derived directly from the infinitive. For example, the verb love derives all its forms systematically (love, loved, loving, has loved, loves), and since these can all be deduced from the basic form (the citation, dictionary, or lexicographic form, which in English is the bare infinitive), no other principal parts have to be learned. With irregular verbs like the verb sing, on the other hand, the forms sang and (have) sung cannot be deduced, so the learner of English must memorize three principal parts, sing – sang – (have) sung. The present 3S (he/she/it) is derived from the infinitive+'s' with the exception of verbs ending in a single -o, or ending in -s, -x, -z or the digraphs -sh, -ch, in which case it is derived from 'infinitive+es'. With three irregular verbs (and their derivatives) the 3S has to be learnt independently (e.g. has, does, undoes, redoes).
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Highly irregular verbs
There are three verbs (in addition to their derivatives) with an irregular third person singular form in the present tense. As a result, three principal parts are insufficient to conjugate these fully.
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To be
The verb "to be" is completely irregular having seven separate forms.
| Part | rendering |
|---|---|
| infinitive | to be |
| present 1S | am |
| present plural and 2S | are |
| present 3S | is |
| preterite 1S and 3S | was |
| preterite plural and 2S | were |
| past participle | been |
German
The situation in German is very similar to English. Regular verbs require no memorizing of principal parts, since all forms can be deduced from the infinitive. However, some uncertainty may exist as to the choice of the perfect auxiliary, which could be haben ('to have') or sein ('to be'). This can be solved by memorizing the infinitive with the third-person singular perfect tense, which some teachers recommend.
- tanzen – er hat getanzt
Strong verbs and irregular weak verbs are more complicated. As in English, these verbs are usually memorized by means of three principal parts: infinitive – third-person singular past tense – third-person singular perfect tense.
- singen – sang – gesungen ('to sing' – a typical strong verb)
- bringen – brachte – gebracht ('to bring' – an irregular weak verb)
However, in order to deduce the full paradigm, learners must also know the third-person singular present and the third-person singular past subjunctive, which involve some peculiarities.
A small number of verbs have other irregularities, most of which are limited to the forms of the present tense.
Icelandic
There are four types of principal parts in the Icelandic language, determined by the type of verb:
Weak verbs
Icelandic weak verbs have the following principal parts:
| First principal part | Second principal part | Third principal part |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | First person singular past tense indicative mood | Past participle |
| að borða ("to eat") | ég borðaði ("I ate") | ég hef borðað ("I have eaten) |
| Að elska ("to love") | ég elskaði ("I loved") | ég hef elskað ("I have loved") |
It is possible to make the present subjunctive mood (þótt ég borði, "though I eat") from the first principal part (að borða, "to eat"). It is also possible to make the past subjunctive mood (þótt ég borðaði, "though I ate") from the second principal part (ég borðaði, "I ate").
In some other classes of weak verbs without 'a' as the thematic vowel, the present indicative singular undergoes more changes, but they are still to a large extent predictable.
Strong verbs
Icelandic strong verbs have the following principal parts:
| First principal part | Second principal part | Third principal part | Fourth principal part |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | First person singular past tense indicative mood | First person plural past tense indicative mood | Past participle |
| Að finna ("to find") | Ég fann ("I found") | Við fundum ("we found") | Ég hef fundið ("I have found") |
It is possible to make the present subjunctive mood (þótt ég finni, "though I find") from the first principal part (að finna, "to find"). It is also possible to make the past subjunctive mood (þótt ég fyndi, "though I found") from the third principal part (við fundum, "we found").
The present singular indicative in this class also undergoes more changes (i-umlaut, dental suffix assimilation etc.), which may let some verbs seem irregular at first glance. They are, however, mainly regular changes, like those in the weak verbs.
Preterite-present verb
Icelandic Preterite-present verbs have the following principal parts:
| First principal part | Second principal part | Third principal part | Fourth principal part |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | First person singular present tense indicative mood | First person singular past tense indicative mood | Past participle |
| Að kunna ("to know") | Ég kann ("I know") | Ég kunni ("I knew") | Ég hef kunnað ("I've known") |
It is possible to make the present subjunctive mood (þótt ég kunni, "though I knew") from the first principal part (að kunna, "to know"). It is also possible to make the past subjunctive mood (þótt ég kynni, "though I knew") from the third principal part (ég kunni, "I knew").
Ri-verbs
Icelandic Ri-verbs have the following principal parts:
| First principal part | Second principal part | Third principal part |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | First person singular past tense indicative mood | Past participle |
| Að snúa ("to turn") | Ég sneri ("I turned") | Ég hef snúið ("I have turned") |
| Að gróa ("to heal") | Ég greri ("I healed") | Ég hef gróið ("I have healed") |
| Að núa ("to rub") | Ég neri ("I rubbed") | Ég hef núið ("I have rubbed") |
| Að róa ("to row") | Ég reri ("I rowed") | Ég hef róið ("I have rowed") |
It is possible to make the present subjunctive mood (þótt ég snúi, "though I turn") from the first principal part (að snúa, "to turn"). It is also possible to make the past subjunctive mood (þótt ég sneri, "though I turned") from the second principal part (ég sneri, "I turned").
Others
Spanish
Excluding a few highly irregular verbs, in Spanish, verbs are traditionally held to have only one principal part, the infinitive, by which one can classify the verb into one of three conjugation paradigms (according to the ending of the infinitive, which may be -ar, -er or -ir). However, some scholars believe that the conjugation could be regularized by adding another principal part to vowel-alternating verbs, which shows the alternation. For example, herir "to hurt" is usually considered irregular because its conjugation contains forms like hiero "I hurt", hieres "you hurt", where the vowel in the root changes into a diphthong. However, by including the first person singular, present tense, indicative mood form (hiero) as a principal part, and noting that the diphthong appears only when that syllable is stressed, the conjugation of herir becomes completely predictable.
French
Regular verbs are formed from a single principal part (the infinitive), and all conjugations derive from this one principal part. A handful of verbs require spelling changes in which case it can be considered that these verbs technically have two or three principal parts depending on how many spelling changes need to be made. They include doubling a consonant, adding accent markers, adding the letter e, and converting letters for example y becoming i.
Seven principal parts
Irregular verbs are markedly more complicated, requiring seven principal parts of which few can be easily derived from the infinitive. For some verbs a few of their principal parts are identical with one another.
| Principal part | How to get the stem | "Inherited" (regular) value of stem |
|---|---|---|
| infinitive | Remove ending -er, -ir, -oir, -re | — |
| First singular present indicative (1S) | Remove ending -s, -e | Infinitive stem |
| First plural present indicative (1P) | Remove ending -ons | Infinitive stem |
| Third plural present indicative (3P) | Remove ending -ent | First plural present stem |
| (First singular) future (FUT) | Remove ending -ai | Full infinitive stem (minus any -e) |
| (Masculine singular) past participle (PP) | Full word | Infinitive stem, plus -i (plus -u if ends -re) |
| (First singular) simple past (PAST) | Remove ending -s, -ai | Past participle (minus any -s or -t) |
The paradigm goes as follows:
| Indicative | Subjunctive | Conditional | Imperative | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | Simple past | Imperfect | Future | Present | Imperfect | Present | Present | |
| je | 1S+s | PAST+s | 1P+ais | FUT+ai | 3P+e | PAST+sse | FUT+ais | |
| tu | FUT+as | 3P+es | PAST+sses | (same as pres. indic. 3rd. sg. if ends with vowel, else 2nd. sg.) | ||||
| il/elle | 1S+t1 | PAST+t | 1P+ait | FUT+a | 3P+e | PAST+ˆt | FUT+ait | |
| nous | 1P+ons | PAST+ˆmes | 1P+ions | FUT+ons | 1P+ions | PAST+ssions | FUT+ions | (same as pres. indic. 1st pl.) |
| vous | 1P+ez | PAST+ˆtes | 1P+iez | FUT+ez | 1P+iez | PAST+ssiez | FUT+iez | (same as pres. indic. 2nd pl.) |
| ils/elles | 3P+ent | PAST+rent | 1P+aient | FUT+ont | 3P+ent | PAST+ssent | FUT+aient | |
1 The -t is regularly dropped when directly following a d or t (e.g. il vend "he sells", not *il vendt).
Example with plaire
| Indicative | Subjunctive | Conditional | Imperative | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | Simple past | Imperfect | Future | Present Perfect | Present | Imperfect | Present | Present | |
| je / j' | plais | plus | plaisais | plairai | ai plu | plaise | plusse | plairais | |
| tu | plairas | as plu | plaises | plusses | plais | ||||
| il/elle | plaît | plut | plaisait | plaira | a plu | plaise | plût | plairait | |
| nous | plaisons | plûmes | plaisions | plairons | avons plu | plaisions | plussions | plairions | plaisons |
| vous | plaisez | plûtes | plaisiez | plairez | avez plu | plaisiez | plussiez | plairiez | plaisez |
| ils/elles | plaisent | plurent | plaisaient | plairont | ont plu | plaisent | plussent | plairaient | |
Verbs with 11 principal parts
A few highly irregular verbs require 11 principal parts to conjugate them fully. It includes all of the seven principal parts as well as a subjunctive form and different present participle forms, imperative forms and present-participle forms.
Fully irregular verbs
The verbs être, avoir and aller are so irregular they require even more than 11 principal parts.
Scottish Gaelic
In Scottish Gaelic there are two principal parts for the regular verb: the imperative and the verbal noun, for example pòg – pògadh 'to kiss'. All finite forms can be deduced from the imperative pòg ('kiss!'), all non-finite forms from the verbal noun pògadh ('kissing'). The ten irregular verbs can, with only two or three small aberrations (unexpected lenition), be deduced from four principal parts.
Ganda
The principal parts of a Ganda verb are the imperative (identical to the verb stem), the first person singular of the present tense and the modified stem. For example, the verb okwogera 'to speak' has the principal parts yogera – njogera – yogedde.
The present tense, far past tense, near future tense, far future tense, subjunctive and infinitive are derived from the imperative. The present perfect, conditional and near past tense are derived from the modified stem.
In theory the second principal part can be derived from the first, but in practice this is so complicated that it is usually memorised as a separate principal part.
(See also Ganda verbs.)
See also
- Regular and irregular verbs
- Grammatical conjugation
- Latin conjugation
- Root (linguistics)
- Lemma (morphology)
References
- Ri-verbs are written with an e in the second principal part according to the Icelandic Ministry of Education even though it is pronounced as if it were written with an é.
This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Principal parts news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2011 Learn how and when to remove this message In language learning the principal parts of a verb are the most fundamental forms of a verb that can be conjugated into any form of the verb The concept originates in the humanist Latin schools where students learned verbs by chanting them in the four key forms from which all other forms can be deduced for example ferō ferre tuli latum to carry Not all languages have to be taught in this way In French for example regular verbs can be deduced from a single form the infinitive and irregular verbs are too random to be systematized under fixed parts But the concept can be carried over to many languages in which the verbs have some kind of regular irregularity i e irregularity always occurs at the same place in an otherwise regular system Although the term principal part is usually applied to verbs the same phenomenon can be found in some languages in nouns and other word types Classical languagesLatin In Latin most verbs have four principal parts For example the verb for to carry is given as portō portare portavi portatum where portō is the first person singular present active indicative I carry portare is the present active infinitive to carry portavi is the first person singular perfect active indicative I carried and portatum is the neuter supine Most of the verb forms in Latin derive from the first two principal parts portabō I shall carry is derived from the root porta taken from the present infinitive However all active perfect forms are derived from the third principal part so portaveram I had carried is taken from portav while the perfect participle portatus portata portatum having been carried is derived from the supine and is used to form the perfect passive participle with the auxiliary verb sum such as portatum est it has been carried The auxiliary verb is often dropped when writing poetry in Latin For many Latin verbs the principal parts are predictable portō shown above uses a single stem port and all principal parts are derived from them with the endings ō are avi atum Others have more complicated forms regō I rule has the perfect form rexi and perfect participle rectum derived as reg si and reg tum A handful of verbs such as sum esse fui futurum to be are simply irregular A number of verbs have fewer than four principal parts deponent verbs such as hortŏr hortari hortatus sum to exhort lack a perfect form as do semi deponent verbs such as audeō audere ausus sum to dare in both cases passive forms are treated as active so all perfect forms are covered by the perfect participle A handful of verbs are also defective including the verb ōdi ōdisse to hate which only has perfect forms derived from a single stem Ancient Greek Verbs in Ancient Greek have six principal parts present I future II aorist III perfect IV perfect middle V and aorist passive VI each listed in its first person singular form Part I forms the entire present system as well as the imperfect Part II forms the future tense in the active and middle voices Part III forms the aorist in the active and middle voices Part IV forms the perfect and pluperfect in the active voice and the exceedingly rare future perfect active Part V forms the perfect and pluperfect in the middle voice and the rare future perfect middle Part VI forms the aorist and future in the passive voice One principal part can sometimes be predicted from another but not with any certainty For some classes of verbs however all principal parts can be predicted given the first one Germanic languagesEnglish Excluding four common irregular verbs the principal parts of all other English verbs are the infinitive preterite and past participle All forms of these English verbs can be derived from the three principal parts Four verbs have an unpredictable 3rd person singular form and the verb to be is so irregular it has seven separate forms Lists or recitations of principal parts in English often omit the third principal part s auxiliary verb rendering it identical to its grammatically distinct participial form For example the verb to take has the principal parts take took have taken The verb to bet has bet bet have bet and the verb to break has break broke have broken With irregular verbs the simple present 3S he she it is derived from infinitive s with the exception of spelling changes such as catch catches fly flies and teach teaches which follow the same rules for regular 3S verbs Examples of irregular verbs and their principal parts only one part is irregular Part renderinginfinitive to sewpreterite or simple past sewedpast participle sewn both parts are irregular Part renderinginfinitive to singpreterite or simple past sangpast participle sung all forms are the same Part renderinginfinitive to cutpreterite or simple past cutpast participle cut Regular verbs Most verbs are regular enough that all forms can be derived directly from the infinitive For example the verb love derives all its forms systematically love loved loving has loved loves and since these can all be deduced from the basic form the citation dictionary or lexicographic form which in English is the bare infinitive no other principal parts have to be learned With irregular verbs like the verb sing on the other hand the forms sang and have sung cannot be deduced so the learner of English must memorize three principal parts sing sang have sung The present 3S he she it is derived from the infinitive s with the exception of verbs ending in a single o or ending in s x z or the digraphs sh ch in which case it is derived from infinitive es With three irregular verbs and their derivatives the 3S has to be learnt independently e g has does undoes redoes ends in the letter e Part renderinginfinitive to scorepreterite scoredpast participle scored other endings Part renderinginfinitive to riskpreterite riske dpast participle risked doubling consonants Part renderinginfinitive to stoppreterite stopp e dpast participle stopped Highly irregular verbs There are three verbs in addition to their derivatives with an irregular third person singular form in the present tense As a result three principal parts are insufficient to conjugate these fully to have Part renderinginfinitive to havepresent 3S has haez preterite hadpast participle had to say Part renderinginfinitive to saypresent 3S says sɛz preterite saidpast participle said to do Part renderinginfinitive to dopresent 3S does dʌz preterite didpast participle done To be The verb to be is completely irregular having seven separate forms To be with seven different forms Part renderinginfinitive to bepresent 1S ampresent plural and 2S arepresent 3S ispreterite 1S and 3S waspreterite plural and 2S werepast participle beenGerman The situation in German is very similar to English Regular verbs require no memorizing of principal parts since all forms can be deduced from the infinitive However some uncertainty may exist as to the choice of the perfect auxiliary which could be haben to have or sein to be This can be solved by memorizing the infinitive with the third person singular perfect tense which some teachers recommend tanzen er hat getanzt Strong verbs and irregular weak verbs are more complicated As in English these verbs are usually memorized by means of three principal parts infinitive third person singular past tense third person singular perfect tense singen sang gesungen to sing a typical strong verb bringen brachte gebracht to bring an irregular weak verb However in order to deduce the full paradigm learners must also know the third person singular present and the third person singular past subjunctive which involve some peculiarities A small number of verbs have other irregularities most of which are limited to the forms of the present tense Icelandic There are four types of principal parts in the Icelandic language determined by the type of verb Weak verbs Icelandic weak verbs have the following principal parts First principal part Second principal part Third principal partInfinitive First person singular past tense indicative mood Past participlead borda to eat eg bordadi I ate eg hef bordad I have eaten Ad elska to love eg elskadi I loved eg hef elskad I have loved It is possible to make the present subjunctive mood thott eg bordi though I eat from the first principal part ad borda to eat It is also possible to make the past subjunctive mood thott eg bordadi though I ate from the second principal part eg bordadi I ate In some other classes of weak verbs without a as the thematic vowel the present indicative singular undergoes more changes but they are still to a large extent predictable Strong verbs Icelandic strong verbs have the following principal parts First principal part Second principal part Third principal part Fourth principal partInfinitive First person singular past tense indicative mood First person plural past tense indicative mood Past participleAd finna to find Eg fann I found Vid fundum we found Eg hef fundid I have found It is possible to make the present subjunctive mood thott eg finni though I find from the first principal part ad finna to find It is also possible to make the past subjunctive mood thott eg fyndi though I found from the third principal part vid fundum we found The present singular indicative in this class also undergoes more changes i umlaut dental suffix assimilation etc which may let some verbs seem irregular at first glance They are however mainly regular changes like those in the weak verbs Preterite present verb Icelandic Preterite present verbs have the following principal parts First principal part Second principal part Third principal part Fourth principal partInfinitive First person singular present tense indicative mood First person singular past tense indicative mood Past participleAd kunna to know Eg kann I know Eg kunni I knew Eg hef kunnad I ve known It is possible to make the present subjunctive mood thott eg kunni though I knew from the first principal part ad kunna to know It is also possible to make the past subjunctive mood thott eg kynni though I knew from the third principal part eg kunni I knew Ri verbs Icelandic Ri verbs have the following principal parts First principal part Second principal part Third principal partInfinitive First person singular past tense indicative mood Past participleAd snua to turn Eg sneri I turned Eg hef snuid I have turned Ad groa to heal Eg greri I healed Eg hef groid I have healed Ad nua to rub Eg neri I rubbed Eg hef nuid I have rubbed Ad roa to row Eg reri I rowed Eg hef roid I have rowed It is possible to make the present subjunctive mood thott eg snui though I turn from the first principal part ad snua to turn It is also possible to make the past subjunctive mood thott eg sneri though I turned from the second principal part eg sneri I turned OthersSpanish Excluding a few highly irregular verbs in Spanish verbs are traditionally held to have only one principal part the infinitive by which one can classify the verb into one of three conjugation paradigms according to the ending of the infinitive which may be ar er or ir However some scholars believe that the conjugation could be regularized by adding another principal part to vowel alternating verbs which shows the alternation For example herir to hurt is usually considered irregular because its conjugation contains forms like hiero I hurt hieres you hurt where the vowel in the root changes into a diphthong However by including the first person singular present tense indicative mood form hiero as a principal part and noting that the diphthong appears only when that syllable is stressed the conjugation of herir becomes completely predictable French Regular verbs are formed from a single principal part the infinitive and all conjugations derive from this one principal part A handful of verbs require spelling changes in which case it can be considered that these verbs technically have two or three principal parts depending on how many spelling changes need to be made They include doubling a consonant adding accent markers adding the letter e and converting letters for example y becoming i Seven principal parts Irregular verbs are markedly more complicated requiring seven principal parts of which few can be easily derived from the infinitive For some verbs a few of their principal parts are identical with one another Principal part How to get the stem Inherited regular value of steminfinitive Remove ending er ir oir re First singular present indicative 1S Remove ending s e Infinitive stemFirst plural present indicative 1P Remove ending ons Infinitive stemThird plural present indicative 3P Remove ending ent First plural present stem First singular future FUT Remove ending ai Full infinitive stem minus any e Masculine singular past participle PP Full word Infinitive stem plus i plus u if ends re First singular simple past PAST Remove ending s ai Past participle minus any s or t The paradigm goes as follows Paradigm for most irregular verbs 7 principal parts Indicative Subjunctive Conditional ImperativePresent Simple past Imperfect Future Present Imperfect Present Presentje 1S s PAST s 1P ais FUT ai 3P e PAST sse FUT aistu FUT as 3P es PAST sses same as pres indic 3rd sg if ends with vowel else 2nd sg il elle 1S t1 PAST t 1P ait FUT a 3P e PAST ˆt FUT aitnous 1P ons PAST ˆmes 1P ions FUT ons 1P ions PAST ssions FUT ions same as pres indic 1st pl vous 1P ez PAST ˆtes 1P iez FUT ez 1P iez PAST ssiez FUT iez same as pres indic 2nd pl ils elles 3P ent PAST rent 1P aient FUT ont 3P ent PAST ssent FUT aient 1 The t is regularly dropped when directly following a d or t e g il vend he sells not il vendt Example with plaire Plaire to please someone and conjugations with 7 principal parts Indicative Subjunctive Conditional ImperativePresent Simple past Imperfect Future Present Perfect Present Imperfect Present Presentje j plais plu s plais ais plair ai ai plu plais e plu sse plair aistu plair as as plu plais es plu sses plaisil elle plait plu t plais ait plair a a plu plais e plu t plair aitnous plais ons plu mes plais ions plair ons avons plu plais ions plu ssions plair ions plais onsvous plais ez plu tes plais iez plair ez avez plu plais iez plu ssiez plair iez plais ezils elles plais ent plu rent plais aient plair ont ont plu plais ent plu ssent plair aientVerbs with 11 principal parts A few highly irregular verbs require 11 principal parts to conjugate them fully It includes all of the seven principal parts as well as a subjunctive form and different present participle forms imperative forms and present participle forms Fully irregular verbs The verbs etre avoir and aller are so irregular they require even more than 11 principal parts Scottish Gaelic In Scottish Gaelic there are two principal parts for the regular verb the imperative and the verbal noun for example pog pogadh to kiss All finite forms can be deduced from the imperative pog kiss all non finite forms from the verbal noun pogadh kissing The ten irregular verbs can with only two or three small aberrations unexpected lenition be deduced from four principal parts Ganda The principal parts of a Ganda verb are the imperative identical to the verb stem the first person singular of the present tense and the modified stem For example the verb okwogera to speak has the principal parts yogera njogera yogedde The present tense far past tense near future tense far future tense subjunctive and infinitive are derived from the imperative The present perfect conditional and near past tense are derived from the modified stem In theory the second principal part can be derived from the first but in practice this is so complicated that it is usually memorised as a separate principal part See also Ganda verbs See alsoRegular and irregular verbs Grammatical conjugation Latin conjugation Root linguistics Lemma morphology ReferencesRi verbs are written with an e in the second principal part according to the Icelandic Ministry of Education even though it is pronounced as if it were written with an e
