(grammar) A type ofverb specific toGermaniclanguages in which the forms of thepresent tense resemble the forms normally found in thepreterite (orpast) tense ofstrong verbs. In modern English these are principallycan,may,shall,will; one can also include the other verbs that do not (or not always) take-s in the third-person singular:dare,must,need,ought. The only non-modal preterite-present verb is an archaic verbwit.
