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Inlinguistics, adefective verb is averb that either lacks aconjugated form or entails incomplete conjugation, and thus cannot be conjugated for certain grammaticaltenses,aspects,persons,genders, ormoods that the majority of verbs or a "normal" or regular verb in a particular language can be conjugated for^{[citation needed]}. That is to say, a defective verb lacks forms that most verbs in a particular language have.

The most commonly recognized^{[citation needed]} defective verbs inEnglish are auxiliary verbs—the class ofpreterite-present verbs—can/could,may/might,shall/should,must,ought, andwill/would (would being a later historical development). Though these verbs were not originally defective, in most varieties of English today, they occur only in amodal auxiliary sense. However, unlike normal auxiliary verbs, they are not regularly conjugated in the infinitive mood. Therefore, these defective auxiliaries do not accept each other as objects. Additionally, they do not regularly appear as participles.

For example,can lacks an infinitive, future tense, participle, imperative, andgerund. The missing parts of speech are instead supplied by using the appropriate forms ofto be plusable to. So, whileI could write andI was able to write have the same meaning,I could has two meanings depending on use, which areI was able to orI would be able to. One cannot say *I will can, which is instead expressed asI will be able to. Similarly,must has no true past tense form, this instead being supplied byhad (the past tense of have), and "to have to" in the infinitive, an example of composite conjugation. The past tense expressing the obligatory aspect of must is expressed as "had to", as inHe had to go. "Must have", on the other hand, expresses probability or likelihood in modern English; for example,"If that's thunder, there must have been lightning."

Some verbs are becoming more defective as time goes on; for example, althoughmight is etymologically the past tense (preterite) ofmay, it is no longer generally used as such (for example,*he might not go^[a] to mean "he was forbidden to go"). Similarly,should is no longer used as the past ofshall, but with a separate meaning indicating possibility or moral obligation. (However, the use of the preterite formshould as asubjunctive form continues, as inIf I should go there tomorrow, ..., which contrasts with the indicative formI shall go there tomorrow.) The defective verbought was etymologically the past tense ofowe (the affection he ought his children), but it has since split off, leavingowe as a non-defective verb with its original sense and a regular past tense (owed).

Beyond the modal auxiliaries,beware is a fully defective verb in current Modern English: its only, unmarked form is regularly used (in simple aspect, active voice) in the infinitive (I must beware of the dog), imperative (Beware of the dog, [Let the] buyer beware) and subjunctive (She insists that he beware of the dog), but too much of the finite indicative mood is formally lacking (all simple past *bewared, one simple present *bewares, all aspects*am bewaring, etc.). The wordbegone is similar: any usage other than as an imperative is highly marked. Another defective verb is the archaicquoth, a past tense which is the only surviving form of the verbquethe, "to say" (related tobequeath).

Impersonal verbs such asto rain andto snow share some characteristics with the defective verbs in that forms such asI rain orthey snow are not often found; however, the crucial distinction is that impersonal verbs are "missing" certain forms for semantic reasons—in other words, the forms themselves exist and the verb is capable of being fully conjugated with all its forms (and is therefore not defective) but some forms are unlikely to be found because they appear meaningless or nonsensical.

Nevertheless, native speakers can typically use and understand metaphorical or even literal sentences where the "meaningless" forms exist, such asI rained on his parade orShe doesn't frost cakes, she snows them.

Contrast the impersonal verbrain (all the forms of which exist, even if they sometimes look semantically odd) with the defective verbcan (onlyI can andI could are possible). In most cases, a synonym for the defective verb must be used instead (for example, "to be able to"). (The forms with an asterisk⟨*⟩ are impossible, at least with respect to the relevant sense of the verb; these phonemes may by coincidence be attested with respect to ahomograph [as with "canning" = "the act of preserving andpackaging in cans"].)

InArabic, defective verbs are calledأفعال جامدةʾafʿāl jāmidah (lit.,'solid verbs'). These verbs do not change tense, nor do they form related nouns. A famous example is the verbلَيْسَ⁩laysa'it is not', though it is not the only auxiliary verb that exhibits this property. Some Arabic grammarians argue thatدَامَ⁩dāma (as an auxiliary verb) is also completely defective; those who dispute this claim still consider it partially defective. Some other partially defective verbs areفَتِئَ⁩fatiʔa andزَالَ⁩zāla, which have neither an imperative form nor an infinitive form when used as auxiliary verbs.

InCatalan, defective verbs are usually defective for semantic reasons.^[1] Due to their impersonal nature,haver-hi andcaldre are used in only the third person. The implicit repetition intrinsic to the meaning ofsoler results in it having forms in only the present and imperfect tenses. Verbs pertaining to meteorological phenomena, such asploure, can be conjugated in only the third person singular, although a third person plural form is also possible when used with a metaphorical sense. Additionally,lleure is used only in the third person, whiledar lacks present tense forms, with the exceptions of the first person plural and second person plural. Defective verbs in Catalan can generally also be used in the impersonal forms of the infinitive, gerund, and past participle.

At least one Finnish verb lacks the first infinitive (dictionary/lemma) form. In Finnish, "kutian helposti" ("I'm sensitive to tickling") can be said, but for the verb "kutian" (here conjugated in singular first person, present tense) there is no non-conjugated form. Hypothetically, the first infinitive could be "kudita", but this form is not actually used. Additionally, thenegative verb (ei, et, en, emme...) has neither an infinitive form nor a 1st person singular imperative form.

There are several defective verbs in French.

• falloir ("to be necessary"; only the third-person forms withil exist; the present indicative conjugation,il faut, is very commonly used,impersonal verb)
• braire ("to bray"; only infinitive, present participle, and third-person forms exist)^[2]
• frire ("to fry"; lacks non-compound past forms; speakers paraphrase with equivalent forms offaire frire)
• clore ("to conclude"; lacks an imperfect conjugation, as well as first and second person plural present indicative conjugations)
• gésir ("to lie horizontally", often used in inscriptions on gravestones; can be conjugated in only the present, imperfect, present imperative, present participle and extremely rarely, the simple future forms)

Impersonal verbs, such as weather verbs, function as they do in English.

In contemporary German, the verberkiesen, which means "to choose/elect" (usually referring to a person chosen for a special task or honour), is used in only the past participle (erkoren) and, more rarely, the past tense (ich erkor etc.). All other forms, including the infinitive, have long become obsolete and are now unknown and unintelligible to modern speakers. It remains commonplace in the closely relatedDutch language asverkiezen; for example,Verkiezingen in Nederland (Elections in the Netherlands).

"No singleGreek verb shows all the tenses", and "most verbs have only six of" the nine classes of tense-systems, and "[s]carcely any verb shows all nine systems".^[3]

The verb χρή (khrē, 'it is necessary') exists in only the third-person-singular present and imperfect ἐχρῆν / χρῆν (ekhrēn / khrēn, 'it was necessary').

There are also verbs such as οἶδα (oida, 'I know'), which use the perfect form for the present and the pluperfect (here ᾔδηēidē, 'I was knowing') for the imperfect.

Additionally, the verb εἰμί (eimi, 'I am') has only a present, a future and an imperfect – it lacks an aorist, a perfect, a pluperfect and a future perfect.

InHindustani (Hindi andUrdu) all the verbs except the verbhona (to be) lack the following conjugations.

1. Indicative Mood
   • Present
   • Imperfect
2. Presumptive Mood
3. Subjunctive Mood
   • Present

The comparison between the conjugations ofhona (to be) and the conjugations of all other verbs are shown in the table below:

Some verbs in Hindustani which have monosyllabic verb roots ending in the vowels /i/, /ī/ or /e/ are defective because they have the second person intimate and formal future imperative conjugations which are uncommon to native speakers of Hindustani and are almost rarely used. The * mark before some intimate imperative forms below shows those rarely used forms.^[4]

SomeHungarian verbs have either no subjunctive forms or forms which sound uncommon to native speakers; for example,csuklik'hiccup'. See alsoa short summary about them in the English-language Wiktionary.

TheIcelandic verbske'happen', a borrowing fromDanish, has only a third person inflection and is one of a few Icelandic verbs not to end in-a (like verbs in-á andþvo). The verbsmunu'will' andskulu'shall' also end in a vowel other than-a and lack all past indicative forms.

Arsa'says' can be used only in the past or present tense. Thecopulais lacks a future tense, an imperative mood, and a verbal noun. It has no distinct conditional tense forms either, but conditional expressions are possible, expressed using past tense forms; for exampleBa mhaith liom é, which can mean both'I liked it' and'I would like it'. The imperative mood is sometimes suppletively created by using the imperative forms of the substantive verbbí. Future tense forms, however, are impossible and can be expressed only periphrastically.

There is alsodar'[it] appears, seems', a temporally independent verb that always appears in combination with the prepositionle.

Korean has several defective verbs. (말다malda'to stop or desist') may be used in only the imperative form or in thehortative form, after an 'action verb +지 (ji)' construction. Within this scope it can still conjugate for different levels of politeness, such as하지 마!Haji ma!'Stop that!', in contrast with하지 마십시오Haji masipsiyo'Please, don't do that'. Also,데리다derida'to bring/pick up someone' is used only as데리고derigo'bringing X and...',데리러derireo'in order to pick up', or데려deryeo'to pick up' in some compound forms.

Latin has defective verbs that possess forms only in theperfect tense; such verbs have no present tense forms whatsoever. These verbs are still present inmeaning. For example, the first-person formodi ("I hate") and infinitiveodisse ("to hate") appear to be the perfect of a hypothetical verb*odo/odio, but in fact have a present-tense meaning. Similarly, the verbmemini,meminisse is conjugated in the perfect, yet has a present meaning:

Instead of the past-tense "I remembered", "you remembered", etc., these forms signify the present-tense "I remember", "you remember", etc. Latin defective verbs also possess regularly formedpluperfect forms with simple past tense meanings andfuture perfect forms with simple future tense meanings. Comparedeponent verbs, which are passive in form but active in meaning.

The verbcoepī,coepisse, which means "to have begun" or "began", is another verb that lacks a present tense system. However, it is not present in meaning. The verbincipiō,incipere ("I begin," "to begin") is used in the present tense instead. This is not a case ofsuppletion, however, because the verbincipere can also be used in the perfect.

The verbsinquit andait, both meaning "said", cannot be conjugated through all forms. Both verbs lack numerous inflected forms, with entire tenses and voices missing altogether.

ManyMalayic languages, includingMalay andIndonesian, have many defective verbs. Defective verbs in the related Besemah language (South Barisan Malay), for example, have been explained by McDonnell (2016). He is not directly using the term "defective verb", but instead "verb root productivity".^[5]

Widać'it is evident' andsłychać'it is audible' are both highly defective inPolish. The only forms of these verbs that exist are the infinitives. They both work as impersonal verbs in a visible or audible situation that does not require another verb (although may have one), and they have no distinction between singular and plural. For exampleWidać blask wśród drzew'A glow is visible among the trees' orJego głos słychać w całym domu'His voice can be heard in the whole house'.

A large number ofPortuguese verbs are defective inperson; that is, they lack the proper form for one of the pronouns in some tense. The verbcolorir ("to color") has no first-person singular in the present, thus requiring a paraphrase, such asestou colorindo ("I am coloring") or the use of another verb of a similar meaning, such aspintar ("to paint").

SomeRussian verbs are defective, in that they lack a first person singular non-past form: for example,победить'to win',убедить'to convince',дудеть'to play the pipe'. These are all verbs whose stem ends in a palatalizedalveolar consonant;^[6] they are not aclosed class, but include in their number neologisms and loanwords such asфрендить(to friend, as on a social network).^[7] Where such a verb form would be required, speakers typically substitute a synonymous verb (Я выиграю), or use aperiphrastic construction involvingnominalization and an additional verb (Я одержу победу). Also the wordмогу'I'll be able to, I'll manage to' is used:(Я) смогу победить, (я) смогу убедить.^{[citation needed]}

Many experiential verbs describe processes that humans cannot generally undergo, such asпригореть'to be burnt, regarding food',куститься'to grow in clusters', andпротекать'to seep'—are ordinarily nonsensical in the first or second person. As these forms rarely appear, they are often described as "defective" in descriptions ofRussian grammar.^[8] However, this is a semantic constraint rather than a syntactic one; compare the classic nonsensical-but-grammatical sentenceColorless green ideas sleep furiously, or more directly, the English phraseI am raining. First and second person forms of these verbs do see use in metaphor and poetry.^[9]

Spanish defective verbs generally use forms with stem endings that begin with -i.^[10] The verbs are not commonly used.

• aguerrir
• arrecirse
• aterirse
• balbucir (found in forms ending in -i, but mostly replaced bybalbucear)
• blandir
• despavorir
• empedernir
• garantir (usually replaced bygarantizar, which is regular)
• soler (always used as helping verb, so many forms, although possible, won't make sense)
• usucapir (to acquire property rights through customary use; only in the infinitive in legal texts)^[10]

The following two verbs used to be defective verbs but are now normally conjugated.

• abolir (theNueva gramática de la lengua española from the Real Academia (section 4.14d) now conjugates it normally, usingabolo /aboles, etc.)
• agredir

The auxiliary verbmåste'must' lacks an infinitive, except in Swedish dialects spoken in Finland. Also, the verb is unique in that the formmåste serves as both a present'must' and past'had to' form. Thesupinemåst is rare.

While theTurkish copula is not considered a verb inmodern Turkish, it originated as the defective verb*imek — which is now written and pronounced as a suffix of the predicate.*İmek and the suffixes derived from it exist in only a few tenses; it is replaced by negativedeğil in the tenses originally supplied by*imek, and remaining forms byolmak'to become' otherwise.

The verb can be conjugated only in certain tenses: pastidi, inferential perfectiveimiş, conditionalise, and (non-finite) personal past participleidük (usable with possessive suffixes, notice the form was irregular).

Ukrainian Verbs ending in-вісти (for example,розповісти'to tellPFV' andвідповісти'to answerPFV') lack imperative mood forms; imperfective verbs are used instead (for example,відповідай).

Welsh has several defective verbs, a number of which are archaic or literary. Some of the more common ones in everyday use includedylwn ("I should/ought"), found only in the imperfect and pluperfect tenses,meddaf ("I say"), found only in the present and imperfect, andgeni ("to be born"), which has only a verb-noun and impersonal forms; for example,Ganwyd hi (She was born, literally "one bore her"). Common defective verbs in the spoken language areeisiau (pronounced, and often spelt, asisio orisie) andangen which mean 'to want' and 'to need' respectively; both are in fact nouns but are used in speech as if they were verb-nouns though they do not take the precedingyn, comparedw i'n canu 'I sing' vs.dw i eisiau 'I want'. The literary language would use these as nouns and not as defective verbs; for example,mae eisiau arnaf 'I want', literally 'there is a want on me'.

• Unpaired word – another form of lexical gap

• Baerman, Matthew; Brown, Dunstan; Corbett, Greville G. (2009a).Surrey Typological Database on Defectiveness. University of Surrey.doi:10.15126/SMG.21/1.
• Baerman, Matthew; Brown, Dunstan; Corbett, Greville G. (2009b).Surrey Cross-linguistic Database on Defectiveness. University of Surrey.doi:10.15126/SMG.21/2.
• Baerman, Matthew; Brown, Dunstan; Corbett, Greville G., eds. (2010).Defective paradigms: Missing forms and what they tell us. Proceedings of the British Academy. Vol. 163. Oxford: Oxford University Press and British Academy.ISBN 978-0-19-726460-7.

• Verb types

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