What Is the Difference Between a “Weak Verb” and a “Strong Verb”?
What Is the Difference Between a “Weak Verb” and a “Strong Verb”?Answer: The distinction between a weak verb and a strong verb is based on how the past tense of the verb is formed. Weak verbs (also called regular verbs) form the past tense by adding -ed, -d, or -t to the base form–or present tense form–of the verb (for example, call, called and walk, walked). Strong verbs (also called irregular verbs) form the past tense or the past participle (or both) in various ways but most often by changing the vowel of the present tense form (for example, give, gave and stick, stuck). In Garner’s Modern American Usage (Oxford University Press, 2003), Bryan Garner offers this explanati
