meaning of irregular verbs

[hela]

Dear teachers,

1) Would you please tell me the difference in meaning between the following verbs? I would also appreciate if you could give me sentences as illustrations.

a) “forbear / forsake / forswear” ?

b) “heave” (regular) and “heave” (irregular)?

c) “crow” (regular) and “crow” (irregular)?

d) “abide” (regular) and “abide” (irregular)?

e) “cleave” (regular) and “cleave” (irregular)


2) The irregular form of the verb “to hide” is :
a) hid / hid / hidden
b) hid / hid / hid
c) both? Any difference between the 2 forms?

Many thanks,
Hela

[RonBee]

I don't think crow has an irregular form.

The declension of hide is hide, hid, hidden, hides, hiding.

:)

[Casiopea]

Have you tried Dictionary.com? Here the link. :D

[hela]

To RonBee,

All the verbs I gave you have a regular and irregular form, but sometimes they do not have the same meaning. Of course, I looked them up in a dictionary but I find different explanations whether I look up a monolingual dictionary or a bilingual dictionary. This is why I wanted some more help from you, teachers.

The verb "crow" has an irregular form which is "crew" / "crowed". The monolingual dictionary says that it is applied to a cock who crows in the morning, to a person who wants to show off, or to a baby who wants to communicate with others (I suppose). But the bilingual dictionary says that only the irregular form can be applied to the cock. Is that right?

Many thanks,
Hela

[RonBee]

The word crow does have a past tense, crew, but I think it is obsolete. That is, it is not used anymore.

:)

[Tdol]

We say'crowed' in the UK- I have never heard the form 'crew'.

[Casiopea]

Hela, click on the words below. :D Sorry, there are no example sentences, only paradigms.

forbear
forsake
forswear
heave
crow
abide
cleave

[Tomasz Klimkiewicz]

Hello Everyone, hi Hela,

As regards the other verb questions you've posted, here's my two cents:

heave is a regular verb in its main meaning, which is
- lift or haul with an effort,
- rise and fall, like on waves.

Indeed, the irregular conjugation form 'hove' for p. and p.p. is restricted to the nautical meaning 'head towards', 'come to a stop'.

Such idiosyncrasies are not unknown, 'hang' being an excellent example. When it means 'put an object in a state of physical suspension' it is irregular, the p. and p.p. forms being 'hung'. The regular forms ('hanged') only refer to execution of a person by hanging.

The verb 'abide' is regular ('abided'), but 'abode' as the p. and p.p. can also be used. This does not imply any change of meaning, though.

The meaning of 'abide' is 1) await 2) withstand, bear patiently, tolerate.

I must admit I have problems recalling the conjugation forms of the verb 'cleave' ('split' - is that what you meant?). I'm not sure whether it can be inflected regularly, I would say so. The historical irregular forms I remember are clove or cleft for p. and cloven or cleft for p.p. It may be so that the regular forms refer to another meaning, 'adhere', 'stick'.

The list of verbs that conjugate in both ways is a long one, and includes, among others, such commonly used verbs as 'learn', 'burn','spell' and 'spill'. I am not sure if the regular / irregular inflection forms are distinctive for UK / US varieties of the English language.

The above is from the top of my head, without consulting any sources. Possible corrections are welcome, of course.

Regards,

[Tdol]

'Hove' into view\site is used sometimes in the UK.

[Red5]

See also:

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1967