weak verb

== English == === Etymology === Calque of German schwaches Verb (19th c.). Jacob Grimm called “weak” those classes of conjugation and declension which had lost more distinctions between forms or grammatical categories. The later use of Semitic is a semantic loan from Arabic فِعْل مُعْتَلّ (fiʕl muʕtall). === Noun === weak verb (plural weak verbs) (grammar, linguistics) (in the Germanic languages) One of a class of verbs which use a dental suffix appended to the stem to indicate the past tense. (by narrowing) A regular verb of this class (thus excluding verbs that do have a dental suffix, but show some formal peculiarity, as in tell > told). (in non-Germanic languages) A member of a verb class that is customarily called “weak”, and usually distinguished from another class called “strong”. (in the Semitic languages) A verb formed from a root that includes a semivowel or another consonant prone to elision (so-called “weak roots”). ==== Usage notes ==== The narrower use in the sense of regular verb is unusual in grammars of older Germanic languages, in which the features that now seem irregular were usually predictable at least to some extent. For modern Germanic languages, such usage is quite common, however, although it may be proscribed by some. The use in Semitic grammar is very different from that in Germanic, as the Semitic weak verb is less regular than the strong verb. ==== Coordinate terms ==== strong verb ==== Translations ====