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of the system, are normally taught as irregular verbs; but there are also irregular weak verbs in
English and German, and in Hebrew the weak verbs are the most irregular ones. In the case of the German noun, the strong noun is the norm, while the weak noun is usually taught as the anomalous form, though in fact it has its own regularity. In the German adjective, both systems are equally regular and equally common.
374:, most verbs have three consonants known as radicals. These can be strong (able to carry a full syllable) or weak (likely to collapse under the weight of a prefix or suffix). Verbs with a weak radical are termed weak verbs, and form partially regular exceptions to the normal conjugation rule. The consonants
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The terms "weak" and "strong" rarely overlap with the idea of "regular" and "irregular"; some descriptions of
English verbs contrast "weak" with "irregular", but this is misleading. It is true that most English or German weak verbs are regular, whereas Germanic strong verbs, despite the regularity
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Although the term "weak noun" is very useful in German grammar to describe this very small and distinctive group, the term "strong noun" is less commonly heard, since it would have to include many other noun types that should not necessarily be grouped together. Some of these have
280:. In this context, the terms "strong" and "weak" seem particularly appropriate, since the strong declension carries more information about case and gender, while the weak declension is used in situations where the definite article already provides this information. Examples:
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when a language has two parallel systems. The only constant feature in all the grammatical usages of the word "weak" is that it forms a polarity with "strong"; there is not necessarily any objective "weakness" about the forms so designated.
276:. This differs from the situation in nouns and verbs in that every adjective can be declined using either the strong or the weak declension. As with the nouns, weak in this case means the declension in
208:(the vocalic conjugations), "weak" those that need the addition of a dental suffix (the consonantal conjugations). It is only in this context that the term would be applied to modern English.
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By extension, the terminology was also applied to
Germanic nouns. Here too, the weak noun was the consonantal declension, such as the
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In other languages the strong-weak polarity is used to express distinctions that may or may not be analogous. In
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This terminology seems to have been used first in relation to
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272:There are also strong and weak declensions of
423:Wiktionary appendix: Irregular English verbs
392:are among those likely to make a verb weak.
23:. For weak verbs in Germanic languages, see
68:. Unsourced material may be challenged and
132:Learn how and when to remove this message
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218:German nouns § Declension classes
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66:adding citations to reliable sources
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243:der Junge, des Jungen
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190:Further information:
258:), but most do not.
236:der Mann, des Mannes
196:Germanic strong verb
62:improve this article
449:Germanic languages
192:Germanic weak verb
25:Germanic weak verb
411:Strong inflection
274:German adjectives
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21:regular verb
170:conjugation
148:, the term
444:Verb types
433:Categories
396:Regularity
262:Adjectives
256:die Männer
174:declension
92:newspapers
29:light verb
254:plurals (
49:does not
405:See also
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348:dem gut
338:den gut
328:der gut
156:schwach
146:grammar
106:scholar
70:removed
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372:Hebrew
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252:umlaut
206:ablaut
161:strong
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334:(nom)
304:(acc)
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245:'boy'
238:'man'
212:Nouns
186:Verbs
166:stark
113:JSTOR
99:books
352:Wein
342:Wein
332:Wein
312:Wein
302:Wein
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194:and
151:weak
85:news
53:any
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