§ 377. Verbs in -aître and -oître (strong verbs). There are five series of verbs in -aître and -oître.

1. connaître and compounds (cognoscere).

2. paraître and compounds (parere through L.L. parescère).

3. croître

4. naître

5. paître

and compounds (crescere).

and compounds (nasci through L.L. nascere). and compounds (pascère).

They differ in various respects:

(a) Use of the circumflex accent:

The circumflex accent has in each verb arisen from the same cause; viz., the omission of s. But its use is irregular and fitful :

1. Connaître, paraître, paître, are alike thoughout in the use of accent.

2. Croître (see § 345) employs the circumflex accent in several places where paraître and connaître do not employ it. The main object is doubtless to prevent any confusion between its forms and those of croire.

3. Naître employs the accent in Present Infinitive, Future Indicative and Present Conditional only, and not in Present Indicative: naître, je naîtrai, je naîtrais, but il nait, not il naît

(B) Connaître and paraître have rejected the older spelling in oi croître still retains it (see § 85).

(y) Paître is defective. It has no Past Simple tense, nor has it a Past Participle in its ordinary sense, to graze. Pu is employed in falconry only: le faucon a pu (feast upon). Repaître is not defective, and follows connaître in its conjugation.

(8) The anomalous form né is only an orthographical expedient for neit (natus). Other old forms are nestre, nest, nez, neiz. For naquis see § 374.

§ 378. Conclure and Clore (strong verbs). Conclure (concludere) and clore (claudere), have a common root, but their modes of conjugation in Modern French differ in many particulars.

1. Conclure has preferred the hiatus in concluant, concluais, etc. Clore has inserted an s, closant, closais, etc. This s arises no doubt from the attraction of the Past Participle clos (clausus.) In Old French the hiatus was maintained: Ou ils cloyaient la plus part de l'ost (camp). (COMMINES, 15th cent.) 2. Conclure has conclu (conclusus), but clore has clos (clausus). 3. Clore, éclore are defective, conclure is not.

$379. Verbs in -vrir and -frir (weak verbs).

1. Ouvrir is the correct resultant of aperire or operire; couvrir that of cooperire. Offrir, souffrir, which in French follow ouvrir, are, on the contrary, anomalous. They are from offerre, sufferre, through Low Latin offerere, sufferere.

2. The Present Indicative forms j'offre, tu offres, il offre; j'ouvre, tu ouvres, il ouvre; je couvre, tu couvres, il couvre, seem to be remains of offrer, ouvrer, couvrer, Norman forms of offrir, ouvrir, couvrir.

3. Recouvrir and recouvrer have not the same origin. Recouvrir is recouvrir, recouvrer is recuperare. The two words exist in English in recover.

He recovered his sofa

He recovered my esteem

(recouvrir)
(recouvrer)

The confusion between recouvrir and recouvrer was common till the sixteenth century. Ménage and Vaugelas say nothing against this blunder. Even the careful Malherbe writes :— (Ils) ont recouvert leur santé.

§ 380. Verbs in -uire.

(a) There are four series of verbs in -uire.

1. duire and its compounds conduire, déduire, réduire, traduire, produire, introduire, which have a common origin, ducère.

2. Cuire from coquère.

3. The compounds of struire (itself not used) from struěre: construire, instruire, détruire.

4. Luire, nuire, from lucere, nocere, through L.L. lucère,

nocère.

(B) The Perfect Participle is their only point of difference: lui, nui, but conduit, cuit, construit, etc. Compare confit and suffi, conclu and clos, etc. (§ 373 B).

(y). The s of conduisant, luisant, nuisant, is the c of the Latin. The s of instruisant has been inserted by false analogy.

(8) Duire from ducere is almost obsolete. It occurs in the sense of trained, etc. Ane bien duit. It is more often imper

sonal.

= Il me convient, it suits me.

Il me duit: It is often found in the 17th century. Genre de mort qui ne duit pas à gens peu curieux de trépas. (LA FONTAINE.)

§ 381. Ecrire (scribĕre).

(a) To words beginning with such difficult consonantal sounds as sc, sm, sp, st, was added, in the popular words of most of the Romance languages, an initial vowel to facilitate the pronunciation.* Sometimes the s has dropped out, sometimes not:

sperare, espérer; status, état.

(3) Ecrire has a strong Infinitive, and a strong Past Participle, écrit (scriptus); but its Simple Past tense, écrivis, is weak. It is modern. The strong resultant of the Latin Perfect is often found in Old French.

Les quiex enseignemens le roy escript de sa sainte main. (JOINVILLE, 13th cent.) Et escript le pape au roi Charles. (FROISSART, 14th cent.) For the v in écrivant, écrivais, see avoir, § 404.

§ 382. Peindre, plaindre, joindre, etc. (weak verbs). Verbs in -eindre, -aindre, -oindre differ in various particulars from other verbs in -ndre. This difference is for the most part traceable to the Latin.

1. Vendre, tendre, etc., are from Latin vendere, tendĕre; in them the d is a part of the root, and persists throughout the verb.

2. Peindre, éteindre, joindre, etc., are from Latin pingere, extinguere, jungere, etc. In them the d has only been inserted between the two liquids for strength,+ and is no part of the root.

3. The stem of the vendre series has maintained its root consonant d throughout the verb; that of the peindre series returns to the root consonant g of the Latin in the following parts :

peignant
peignais

peigne

4. Vendre has a weak Past Participle, vendu; but peindre has a strong Past Participle, peint (pinctus).

* Compare (French) étable, échelle, épée, estimer, estomac, espace, escalier, (Spanish), estar, escribo, espero (Provençal), estable, escala, espada. For other examples see Diez, p. 241, vol. i.

† Other examples of a similar insertion of d between n and r are: cendre, gendre, moindre, pondre, tendre, vendredi, tiendrai, viendrai (§ 40).

§ 383. Traire (weak verb), trahĕre.

Traire, in Old French, had the meaning it has in Latin, to draw. It is now restricted to the sense of to milk. The real meaning of the root is better seen in attraire (attract), distraire (distract).

Why the Past Simple in these verbs should be wanting is not apparent, unless it be that a confusion was created between it and different forms of trahir. As in old French the pronunciation and the spelling were often similar, this is probably the reason: Sa mere l'enseigna a Dieu croire et a amer, et li atraït entour li toutes gens de religion. (JOINVILLE, 13th cent.) Compare: Qui ainsi m'as traïe de traïson cruel. (Berte, 13th cent.)

§ 384. Saillir and compounds (weak verbs).

(a) Saillir is derived from salire through sallire.

Till the sixteenth century, both this verb and its compounds assaillir, tressaillir, were throughout non-inchoative in form. Then the influence of the inchoative conjugation began to show itself. Two forms were given to saillir; one with all the inchoative tenses possessed by finir; the other non-inchoative, like sentir. To the form like finir was given the sense to gush out. To the non-inchoative form was given the sense of to jut out. These distinctions still exist :

Les eaux saillissent; but

Ces balcons saillent.

(B) Both assaillir and tressaillir follow the non-inchoative form only tressaillant, tressaillais, assaillant, j'assaillais, etc. But tressaillit for tressaille is found:

Il tressaillit de joie de voir multiplier ses pratiques.

(MONTESQUIEU.)

Un jeune animal tranquille habitant des forêts, qui entend le son éclatant d'un cor, en tressaillit, bondit et fuit.

Compare VÊTIR, etc., § 388.

(BUFFON.)

(y) Till the sixteenth century, the forms je saul, tu saus, il saut, 'assaul, tu assaus, il assaut, j'assaudrai, etc., were in use. Un jour qui n'est pas loin, elle (l'église) verra tomber la troupe qui l'assaut.

Le cœur ne me tressaut.

Compare faillir.

(MALHERBE.) (RÉGNIER.)

In je

§ 385. Battre (weak), batuĕre or battuĕre. Batuere or battuere was battere or batere in Low Latin. bats, tu bats, il bat, we have the form with one t. Moreover, as double final consonants never occur in French, the t of the ending is omitted in il bat. Compare il met, it vêt, il connaît, etc. As d and t are both dentals, the same omission of the t of the ending occurs in il vend, il coud, il moud.

§ 386. Coudre (weak verb), consuĕre.

(a) The real Present stem of the Verb is better seen in cousant, cousais, couse, etc.

(B) d in coudre. The sound of s and r stand with difficulty together; t or d is commonly inserted to help the pronunciation. Usually s yields, and leaves the combination dr, tr.

Compare moudre, résoudre, voudrai, vaudrai, tiendrai, faudrai, etc.

§ 387. Suivre (sequi, through Low Latin sequere).

(a) The Present Singular, je suis, tu suis, il suit, is regularly strong, like the old infinitive, suire or suir, which was common in Old French, side by side with sivre, sievre, etc. The two forms combined to form suivir, employed by Froissart, Marot, etc.; then suivre.

(B) From suivir we have suivi, je suivis. Froissart has even suivissent, suivira, etc., but these forms have left no trace.

(7) S'ensuivre (to follow, to result) is conjugated in third person and Infinitive only. It is usually impersonal: il s'ensuit the result is.

§ 388. Vêtir (weak verb) (vestire).

=

(a) Vêtir is now definitely non-inchoative; but inchoative forms occur in some of the best authors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Les Turcs achetèrent les habits des pestiférés, s'en vêtissent, (MONTESQUIEU.)

etc.

De leurs molles toisons les brebis se vêtissent. (DELILLE.) Compare saillir, faillir (§ 384). The same struggle between the inchoative and non-inchoative forms occurred in revêtir, now non-inchoative. But investir, another compound of vêtir, has all the inchoative forms possessed by finir.

(3) The present singular is je vêts, tu vêts, il vêt; but je vêtis, tu vêtis, il vêtit, are found. So revêtir.

Le cocotier qui ombrage, loge, vêtit, nourrit. (VOLTAIRE.)
On revêtit ses pensées en paroles.
(BOSSUET.)

Here again investir always follows finir.

(y) The Past Participle vêtu is anomalous. Vesti and vestu are both found in Old French: Investir has still the older and regular form investi.