Calque ofGermanschwaches Verb, equivalent toweak +verb.
weakverb (pluralweak verbs)
- (grammar) One of a class ofGermanic verbs which use adental affix appended to the stem to indicate tense; a Germanic weak verb.
1866, William Francis Collier,A Grammar of the English Language, with a Sketch of its History, etc., Edinburgh: Thomas Laurie,→OCLC, page36:AWeak Verb addsd,ed, ort, to the Present Tense, to make the Past Tense; as,invite,invited;betray,betrayed;step,stept.
- (grammar, linguistics) A member of a "weak" class in a language with two or more verb classes.
2009, Charles Häberl,The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz,→ISBN, page177:Three basic root consonant classes exist: the strong verb, roots with weak initial root consonant (I-weak verbs), roots with weak final consonants (III-weak verbs), and a composite class...
- (grammar) A verb theconjugation of which isregular.
1998, Katrin Linder, “Overgeneralization revisited: the case of German past participles”, in Ray Fabri, Albert Ortmann, Teresa Parodi, editors,Models of inflection, Tübingen: M. Niemeyer, page161:Storage clearly is assumed for irregular verb forms. But what about regular orweak verb forms?
- Although some descriptions of grammar useweak verb as a synonym forregular verb, many grammarians consider this usage incorrect or imprecise (for instance,tell is a Germanic weak verb, yet its past tense and past participle forms are irregular:told andtold).
grammar: Germanic verb which uses dental affix to indicate tense
grammar: member of a "weak" verb class
grammar: verb with regular conjugation
Translations to be checked
