ghtest, thou wentest_. [Fist] But, _in those verbs,
where_ the sound of _st_ will unite with the last syllable of the verb, the
vowel is omitted, as: _thou lovedst, thou heardst, thou didst_."--_Cooper's
Murray_, p. 60; _Plain and Practical Gram._, p. 59. This, the reader will
see, is somewhat contradictory; for the colloquial style varies the verb by
"_s_ or _es_," and _taught'st may_ be uttered without the _e_. As for
"_lovedst_," I deny that any vowel "_is omitted_" from it; but possibly one
_may_ be, as _lov'dst_.

2. Wells's account of the same thing is this: "In the simple form of the
present and past indicative, the second person singular of the _solemn
style_ ends regularly in _st_ or _est_, as, thou _seest_, thou _hearest_,
thou _sawest, thou heardest_; and the third person singular of the present,
in _s_ or _es_, as, he _hears_, he _wishes_, and also in _th_ or _eth_, as,
he _saith_, he _loveth_. In the simple form of the present indicative, the
third person singular of the _common_ or _familiar style_, ends in _s_ or
_es_; as, he _sleeps_; he _rises_. The first person singular of the _solemn
style_, and the first and second persons singular of the _common style_,
have _the same form_ as the three persons plural."--_Wells's School
Grammar_, 1st Ed. p. 83; 3d Ed. p. 86. This, too, is both defective and
inconsistent. It does not tell when to add _est_, and when, _st_ only. It
does not show what the _regular preterit_, as _freed_ or _loved_, should
make with _thou_: whether _freedest_ and _lovedest_, by assuming the
syllable _est; fre-edst_ and _lov-edst_, by increasing syllabically from
assuming _st_ only; or _freedst_ and _lov'dst_, or _lovedst_, still to be
uttered as monosyllables. It absurdly makes "_s_ or _es_" a sign of two
opposite styles. (See OBS. 9th, above.) And it does not except "_I am, I
was, If I am, If I was, If thou art, I am loved_," and so forth, from
requiring "the same form, [_are_ or _were_,] as the three persons plural."
This author prefers "_heardest_;" the other, "_heardst_," which I think
better warranted:

"And _heardst_ thou why he drew his blade?
_Heardst_ thou that shameful word and blow
Brought Roderick's vengeance on his foe?"--_Scott_, L. L., C. v, st. 6.

[247] Better, as Wickliffe has it, "the day _in which_;" though, after
nouns of time, the relative _that_ is often used, like the Latin ablative
_quo_ or _qua_, as being equivalent to _in which_ or _on which_.

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