TAYLOR.

This liquor _was_ generally _drank_ by Wood and Billings.
--THACKERAY.

Sometimes in literary English, especially in that of an earlier
period, it is found that the verb eat has the past tense and past
participle _eat_ (et), instead of _ate_ and _eaten_; as, for
example,--

It ate the food it ne'er had _eat_.--COLERIDGE.

How fairy Mab the junkets _eat_.--MILTON.

The island princes overbold
Have _eat_ our substance.--TENNYSON.

This is also very much used in spoken and vulgar English.

The form gotten is little used, _got_ being the preferred form of
past participle as well as past tense. One example out of many is,--

We _had_ all _got_ safe on shore.--DE FOE.

Hung and hanged both are used as the past tense and past
participle of _hang_; but _hanged_ is the preferred form when we speak
of execution by hanging; as,

The butler _was hanged_.--_Bible._

The verb sat is sometimes spelled _sate_; for example,--

Might we have _sate_ and talked where gowans blow.--WORDSWORTH.

He _sate_ him down, and seized a pen.--BYRON.

"But I _sate_ still and finished my plaiting."--KINGSLEY.

Usually shear is a weak verb. _Shorn_ and _shore_ are not commonly
used: indeed, _shore_ is rare, even in poetry.

This heard Geraint, and grasping at his sword,
_Shore_ thro' the swarthy neck.--TENNYSON.

_Shorn_ is used sometimes as a participial adjective, as "a _shorn_
lamb," but not much as a participle. We usually say, "The sheep were
_sheared_" instead of "The sheep were _shorn_."

Went is borrowed as the past tense of _go_ from the old verb _wend_,
which is seldom used except in poetry; for example,--

If, maiden, thou would'st _wend_ with me
To leave both tower and town.--SCOTT.

Exercises.

(_a_) From the table (Sec. 245), make out lists of verbs having the
same vowel changes as each of the following:--

1. Fall, fell, fallen.

2. Begin, began, begun.

3. Find, found, found.

4. Give, gave, given.

5. Drive, drove, driven.

6. Throw, threw, thrown.

7. Fling, flung, flung.

8. Break, broke, broken.

9. Shake, shook, shaken.

10. Freeze, froze, frozen.

(_b_) Find sentences using ten past-tense forms of strong verbs.

(_c_) Find sentences using ten past participles of strong verbs.

[_To the Teacher_,--These exercises should be continued for several
lessons, for full drill on the forms.]