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In
language learning Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language (in other words, gain the ability to be aware of language and to understand it), as well as to produce and use words and sentences t ...
, the principal parts of a
verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
are those forms that a student must memorize in order to be able to conjugate the verb through all its forms. The concept originates in the humanist
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
schools, where students learned verbs by chanting them in the four key forms from which all other forms can be deduced, for example: :''fero - ferre - tuli - latum'' ('to carry') Not all languages have to be taught in this way. In
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, 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. It is normally restricted to regular verbs, nouns, etc., and applies to languages where the regular paradigm is based on more than one underlying form. It does not cover random irregularities.


Classical languages


Latin

In
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
, 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 verb In linguistics, a deponent verb is a verb that is active in meaning but takes its form from a different voice, most commonly the middle or passive. A deponent verb has no active forms. Languages with deponent verbs ''This list may not be ex ...
s, 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 Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
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 In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
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


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).


Highly irregular verbs

There are three verbs (and their derivatives) were three principal parts are insufficient to conjugate them fully having an irregular third person singular form in the present tense (in spelling and/or pronunciation).


To be

The verb "to be" is completely irregular having seven separate forms.


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 Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...
, determined by the type of verb:


Weak verbs

Icelandic weak verbs have the following principal parts: 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: 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 verb The Germanic language family is one of the language groups that resulted from the breakup of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). It in turn divided into North, West and East Germanic groups, and ultimately produced a large group of mediaeval and modern ...
s have the following principal parts: 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: 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. The paradigm goes as follows: 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''

=


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 Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
there are two principal parts for the regular verb: the imperative and the verbal noun, for example – 'to kiss'. All finite forms can be deduced from the imperative ('kiss!'), all non-finite forms from the verbal noun {{lang, gd, 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 Ganda may refer to: Places * Ganda, Angola * Ganda, Tibet, China * Ganda, the ancient Latin name of Ghent, a city in Belgium Other uses * Baganda or Ganda, a people of Uganda ** Luganda or Ganda language, a language of Uganda * ''Ganda'' and "Ga ...
verb are the imperative (identical to the verb stem), the
first person singular In linguistics, grammatical person is the grammatical distinction between deictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically the distinction is between the speaker ( first person), the addressee ( second person), and others (third pers ...
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 Some languages have grammatical categories to represent near future, a subcategory of the future tense. *Going-to future in English may express near future. *Similarly to English, the French verb (''to go'') can be used as an auxiliary verb to cr ...
, far future tense, subjunctive and infinitive are derived from the imperative. The present perfect,
conditional Conditional (if then) may refer to: *Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y *Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred *Conditional proof, in logic: a proof that asserts a co ...
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 In terms of linguistics and grammar, conjugation has two basic meanings. One meaning is the creation of derived forms of a verb from basic forms, or principal parts. It may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, mood, aspect, voice, or ...
* Root (linguistics) * Lemma (morphology)


References

Units of linguistic morphology Grammar