CONJUGATION (Lat. a connecting or together), a term in grammar applilld to a connected view or statement of the changes of form that a verb (q.v.) undergoes in its various relations. See INFLECTION. The forms usually included under this term are those that serve to mark: 1. Person, or the distinction between the speaker, the spoken to, and the as (I) write, (thou) writest, (he) writes. 2. as (.John) writes, (they) write. 3. !tense, or time; as. (I) write, wrote, have written, will write. 4. Mood, or the manner in which the action is presented. When the action is simply asserted, it is the indicative mood, as (he) wrote; when put as a supposition or condi tion, it is the conditional mood, as, if he wrote. 'file potential mood expresses the power of doing the action, as, he can write; and the imperative commands the doing of it— write. The infinitive mood expresses the action without limitation of any kind—to write; as it makes no affirmation, it is, strictly speaking, not a verb, but a kind of abstract noun. The two participles, the one expressing the action as in progress (writ ing), the other as completed (written), may be classed with the infinitive, as not affirming anything. In opposition to the infinitive and the participles, the other parts of the verb are called finite. 5. Voice, or distinction between active and passive (see Vmni); as (he) wrote (the letter), (the letter) was written (by him).
In English, and in most modern European languages, the greater part of those dis tinctions are indicated by separate words; in Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin, they were nearly all indicated by prefixes and affixes, or other modifications of the word itself. The nature and origin of these modifications are considered under the head Ix•i•c TION. All verbs do not take the same chances even in the same language. Although the affixes, e.g., may have originally been the, same, yet they underwent, in course of time, different kinds of corruption or obliteration, depending upon the nature of the letters in the root verb. This leads to the verbs of a language being arranged in differ
ent classes or conjugations. In Latin, for instance, grammarians recognize four conjugations, and verbs that cannot be brought into any class are called irregular verbs.
In English, there are two distinct types of the inflection of verbs; thus, I lore, becomes in the past tense, I loved, and in the passive voice, I am loved; while he shakes becomes he shook, and he was shaken. Verbs that, like love, take d (or ed—sometimes t) in their past tense and past participle, form one class or C.; and those resembling shake in their changes form another. The former class is by far the most numerous; but the latter includes the most commonly used and oldest verbs in the language. The mode of change seen in shake, shook, shaken, is believed to be more ancient than the other, and is therefore called the old C., and sometimes the strong C., the other being the new or weak. The verbs belonging to the old C. are all of Saxon origin, and are primitive or root verbs; while derivative verbs belong to the other class. Verbs of the weak C. are pretty uniform in taking d or ed, although after certain 'letters the d is of necessity pronounced as t, and is sometimes replaced by that letter in writing—dipt. With regard to verbs of the strong C., no rule can be given as to the change of vowel by which the past tense is formed. It was made at first, no doubt, according to felt laws of euphony; and even yet a certain "method " may he discerned " in their madness." Thus: 1. Rise, rose; smite, smote.; ride, rode; drive, drove, etc.
2. Cleave, clove; steal, stole; speak, spoke; tear, tore, etc.
3. Swim, swam or swum; sing, sang or sung; ring, rang or rung, etc.
Fm further information on the C. of English verbs, see Latham's English Lan guage, or Chambers's Information for the People (ed. 1874), vol. ii., art. "English Grammar."