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The preterite present verbs of Old Norse form a small but important class — important because virtually all its members are extremely common. The majority are modal auxiliaries (verbs subordinate to the main verb, which express mood, e.g. English I would come, she might go; cf. 3.6.3). The term ‘preterite present’ reflects the fact that verbs of this type have strong past tense forms in the present; in the past they inflect for the most part like weak verbs, though not all of them have the dental suffix associated with weak inflexion. The reason for the preterite present aberration lies in linguistic pre-history. Put at its most simple, the Germanic past tense is a development of an earlier perfect, which expressed completed action or the state obtaining after the action.

While the perfects of most verbs happily made the transition to past, those of what became the preterite presents seem so firmly to have expressed present state that they were ultimately absorbed into the present tense by the creation of new (weak) past tense forms. Thus, ON vita ‘know’ is related to Latin videre ‘see’ ‘perceive’, and hon veit

‘she knows’ (cf. past tense beit ‘bit’, leit ‘looked’, etc.) must derive from a form that originally meant something like ‘she has perceived’.

The principal parts of the preterite presents are listed in the follow-ing order (the pp. is given in the strong nom./acc. n. sg. form, for some verbs the only one used; note the infinitives munu and skulu, mod-elled on the 3rd pl. present indic., which in virtually all verbs has the same form as the infinitive):

inf., 3rd sg., pl. pres. indic., 3rd sg. pres. subj., 3rd sg. past indic., subj., pp.

eiga ‘own’

eiga —— á —— eigu —— eigi —— átti —— ætti —— átt kunna ‘know’ ‘understand’

kunna — kann — kunnu — kunni — kunni — kynni — kunnat mega ‘be able to’

mega — má — megu — megi — mátti — mætti — mátt/megat muna ‘remember’

muna — man — munu — muni — mundi — myndi — munat munu ‘will’ ‘shall’ (denoting future time or uncertainty) munu — mun — munu — muni/myni — mundi — myndi — (lacking)

skulu ‘shall’ (denoting obligation or intention) skulu — skal — skulu — skuli/skyli — skyldi — skyldi — (lacking)

unna ‘love’

unna — ann — unnu — unni — unni — ynni — unnt/unnat vita ‘know’

vita — veit — vitu — viti — vissi — vissi — vitat flurfa ‘need’

flurfa — flarf — flurfu — flurfi — flurfti — flyrfti — flurft/flurfat Two verbs not historically preterite presents have something in com-mon with the above. They are vilja ‘wish’ ‘want’, a weak modal auxiliary with (in later texts) 2nd sg. present indic. in -t like the other

preterite presents, and vera ‘be’, a highly irregular strong verb basically of type 5 but with preterite-type forms in the present indic. (2nd sg.

ert, 2nd, 3rd pl. eru›, eru; note also 1st sg. em). Of vilja the same principal parts are given as for the preterite presents above; of vera the same plus the 3rd pl. past indic. (cf. the principal parts of strong verbs in 3.6.6 above):

vilja — vill — vilja — vili — vildi — vildi — viljat vera — er — eru — sé — var — váru — væri — verit

In addition to the above, there is a small group of common verbs that have regular strong present tense forms, but a past whose root undergoes radical change, metamorphosing to initial consonant(s) + er or ør, to which weak endings are attached. The pp. has the same root as the infinitive and the -in participial suffix of a strong verb. The verbs concerned are gnúa ‘rub’, gróa ‘grow’, róa ‘row’, sá ‘sow’, snúa

‘turn’. Two examples will suffice (citing the same principal parts as for the preterite presents above).

róa — rœr — róa — rói — reri/røri — reri/røri — róit

snúa — sn‡r — snúa — snúi — sneri/snøri — sneri/snøri — snúit Finally, the principal parts of valda ‘cause’, gøra/gera ‘do’ ‘make’, hafa ‘have’ and ver›a ‘become’ are given, the first because it is highly irregular (with strong forms in the present, a radically altered root and weak endings in the past), the latter three because they are extensively used in a variety of constructions (hafa and ver›a often as auxiliaries) and exhibit certain forms that may not be wholly transparent. For valda, gøra/gera and hafa, with weak pasts, it is enough to cite inf., 3rd sg.

pres. indic., 3rd sg. past indic. and subj., and pp. (for gøra/gera with root vowel change only in the pp. fewer forms would in fact do); for ver›a, the full complement of strong verb principal parts is given (cf.

3.6.6). The pp. is in each case in the strong nom./acc. n. sg. form.

valda —— veldr —— olli —— ylli —— valdit gera —— gerir —— ger›i —— ger›i —— gƒrt hafa —— hefr/hefir —— haf›i —— hef›i —— haft ver›a —— ver›r —— var› —— ur›u —— yr›i —— or›it

3.6.7 Preterite presents and other irregular verbs — Exercise 1. What is the meaning of the term ‘preterite present’?

2. What inflexional features characterise preterite present verbs?

3. What function do many preterite present verbs have?

4. Study the principal parts of kunna (above), and then give the follow-ing forms: 2nd person sg. and pl. present indic., 1st pl. present subj., 3rd pl. past indic. and subj.

5. What forms do vilja and vera have in common with preterite present verbs?

6. What is unusual about the inflexion of (a) gróa, (b) valda, (c) hafa?