Irregular (anomalous) verbs.

These verbs differ from all other verbs in that their forms are derived from different root, i.e. their system is based on suppletivity. For example, forms of the verb “be” are derived from three roots: wes-, es-, and be-.It is possible that these elements originally had different meanings, which were more concrete than the abstract meaning of ‘be’.

Conjugation / Infinitive					wesan, bēon (be)	gān, gangan (go)
Indicative	Present	Singular		1st pers.	eom, bēo	gā
				2d pers.	eart, bist	gǣst
	3d pers.	is, biÞ	gǣÞ
	Plural			sind(on), bēoÞ, sīen, sīn, bēon, sint	gāÞ
Past	Singular	1st pers.		wæs	ēode
		2d person		wǣre	ēodest
3d person		wæs	ēode
Plural			wǣron	ēodon
Present Subjunctive		Singular			sīe, sī, bēo, s	gā
Plural			sind(on), bēoÞ, sīen, sīn, bēon, sint	gān
Past Subjunctive		Singular			wǣre	ēode
Plural			wǣren	ēoden
Participle I					wesende, bēonde	gānde, gangende
Past Participle II					—	(ge)gān
Imperative		Singular 2d person			wes, bēo	gā
Plural 2d person			wesaÞ, bēoÞ	gāÞ

Analytical verb formation in OE

The OE was a synthetical language, though some analytical forms already started to come into use. There existed the following prototypes of future analytical formations:

(1) sculan + infinitive, willan + infinitive

These constructions were occasionally used to convey future meaning. As you remember, there was no special future tense in OE, the hypothetical future meaning could be expressed by lexical means (context, adverbs etc.) or by compound modal predicate. Sculon andwillanused to be pure modal verbs,sculan expressed obligation andwillan – volition, for example:

Þonne sculan hīe Þās helle sēcan (they must seek that hell).

By the end of OE period these verbs started to lose their modal meaning.

(2) habban + Participle II (with transitive verbs), bēon + Participle II (with intransitive verbs)

These combinations mean that the subject had some thing or quality as a result of some action, for example:

hīe hæfdon hiera cyning āworpenne (they had their king deposed).

The Participle II usually agrees with the object in gender, number and case.

Later such constructions started to convey the meaning of completion and result of the action, which could be viewed as beginning of analytical perfective aspect. Occasionally completion of an action was expressed by means of ge- prefix. It also approaches in a way the meaning of he perfective aspect, dōn – gedōn.

(3) wesan/ bēon/weorÞan + Participle II.

This construction had a passive meaning and showed, that the subject aquired a feature as a result of an action performed, for example:

hē wearÞ ofslægen (he became a killed one).

Indo-European had three voices: active, passive and middle (reflexive); Germanic languages lost inflected passive and middle. The above construction could not be considered as expressing passive as it exists now, as the verbs wesan/ bēon/weorÞan retained their full meaning yet.