f _am_ is made up by the word _was_.

s. 337. _Was_ is defective, except in the praeterite tense, where it is
found both in the indicative and conjunctive.

_Indicative._ | _Conjunctive._
_Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._
1. Was Were. | 1. Were Were.
2. Wast Were. | 2. Wert Were.
3. Was Were. | 3. Were Were.

In the older stages of the Gothic languages the word had both a full
conjugation and a regular one. In Anglo-Saxon it had an infinitive, a
participle present, and a participle past. In Moeso-Gothic it was inflected
throughout with -s; as _visa_, _vas_, _v[^e]sum_, _visans_. In that
language it has the power of the Latin _maneo_ = _to remain_. The r first
appears in the Old High German, _wisu_, _was_, _w[^a]rum['e]s_, _wesaner_.
In Norse the s _entirely_ disappears, and the word is inflected with r
throughout; _vera_, _var_, _vorum_, &c.

s. 338. _Be_ is inflected in Anglo-Saxon throughout the present tense, both
indicative and subjunctive. It is found also as an infinitive, _be['o]n_;
as a gerund, _to beonne_; and as a participle, _beonde_; in the present
English its inflection is as follows:

_Present._
_Conjunctive._ | _Imperative._
_Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._
Be Be. | -- --
-- -- | Be Be
Be Be | -- --
_Infin._ To be. _Pres. P._ Being. _Past. Part._ Been.

s. 339. The line in Milton beginning _If thou beest he_--(P. L. b. ii.),
leads to the notion that the antiquated form _beest_ is not indicative, but
conjunctive. Such, however, is not the case: _byst_ in Anglo-Saxon is
indicative, the conjunctive form being _be['o]_. _And every thing that
pretty bin_ (Cymbeline).--Here the word _bin_ is the conjunctive plural, in
Anglo-Saxon _be['o]n_; so that the words _every thing_ are to be considered
equivalent to the plural form _all things_. The phrase in Latin would stand
thus, _quotquot pulchra sint_; in Greek, thus, [Greek: ha an kala ei]. The
_indicative_ plural is, in Anglo-Saxon, not _be['o]n_, but _be['o]dh_ and
_be['o]_.

s. 340. In the "Deutsche Grammatik" it is stated that the Anglo-Saxon forms
_be[^o]_, _bist_, _bidh_, _beodh_, or _be['o]_, have not a present but a
_future_ sense; that whilst _am_ means _I