All 18 Uses
conjugate
in
The American Language, by Mencken
(Auto-generated)
- Its difference from standard English is not merely a difference in vocabulary, to be disposed of in an alphabetical list; it is, above all, a difference in pronunciation, in intonation, in conjugation and declension, in metaphor and idiom, in the whole fashion of using words.†
conjugation = the grammatical change of verb forms to match context
- She is a general's daughter and the wife of a professor, but even professor's wives are not above occasional bogglings of the cases of pronouns and the conjugations of verbs.†
conjugations = grammatical changes of verb forms to match context
- Thus it was, too, that English lost its case inflections and many of its old conjugations, and that our /yes/ came to be substituted for the /gea-se/ (=/so be it/) of an earlier day, and that we got rid of /whom/ after /man/ in /the man I saw/, and that our stark pronoun of the first person was precipitated from the German /ich/.†
- Smith, in his preface, says that his book is intended, "not so much to 'cover' the subject of grammar as to /teach/ it," and calls attention to the fact, somewhat proudly, that he has omitted "the rather hard subject of gerunds," all mention of conjunctive adverbs, and even the conjugation of verbs.†
conjugation = the grammatical change of verb forms to match context
- Its verbs are conjugated in a way that defies all the injunctions of the grammar books; it has its contumacious rules of tense, number and case; it has boldly re-established the double negative, once sound in English; it admits double comparatives, confusions in person, clipped infinitives; it lays hands on the vowels, changing them to fit its obscure but powerful spirit; it disdains all the finer distinctions between the parts of speech.†
conjugated = grammatically changed verb forms to match context
- And so he moves toward the philological millennium dreamed of by George T. Lanigan, when "the singular verb shall lie down with the plural noun, and a little conjugation shall lead them."†
conjugation = the grammatical change of verb forms to match context
- But we still have two plainly defined conjugations of the verb, and we still inflect it for number, and, in part, at least, for person.†
*conjugations = grammatical changes of verb forms to match context
- Some of the more familiar conjugations of verbs in the American common speech, as recorded by Charters or Lardner or derived from my own collectanea, are here set down: /Present/ /Preterite/ /Perfect Participle/ Am was bin (or ben)[20] Attack attackted attackted (Be)[21] was bin (or ben) [20] Beat beaten beat Become[22] become became Begin begun began Bend bent bent Bet bet bet Bind bound bound Bite bitten bit Bleed bled bled Blow blowed (or blew) blowed (or blew) Break broken broke Bring brought (or brung, or brang) brung Broke (passive) broke broke Build built built Burn burnt[23] burnt Burst[24] —— —— Bust busted busted Buy bought (or boughten) bought (or boughten) Can could could'a Catch†
- spoilt spoilt Spring sprung sprang Steal stole stole Sting stang stang Stink stank stank Strike struck struck Swear swore swore Sweep swep swep Swell swole swollen Swim swum swam Swing swang swung Take taken took Teach taught taught Tear tore torn Tell tole tole Think thought[38] thought Thrive throve throve Throw throwed threw Tread tread tread Wake woke woken Wear wore wore Weep wep wep Wet wet wet Win won (or wan)[39] won (or wan) Wind wound wound Wish (wisht) wisht wisht Wring wrung wrang Write written wrote [Pg198] A glance at these conjugations is sufficient to show several general tendencies, some of them going back, in their essence, to the earliest days of the English language.†
- The most obvious is that leading to the transfer of verbs from the so-called strong conjugation to the weak—a change already in operation before the Norman Conquest, and very marked during the Middle English period.†
conjugation = the grammatical change of verb forms to match context
- But during the seventeenth century it seems to have been arrested, and even to have given way to a contrary tendency—that is, toward strong conjugations.†
conjugations = grammatical changes of verb forms to match context
- This weak conjugation was itself degenerated.†
conjugation = the grammatical change of verb forms to match context
- Thus, by a circuitous route, verbs originally strong, and for many centuries hovering between the two conjugations, have eventually become strong again.†
conjugations = grammatical changes of verb forms to match context
- Practically all of them show the weak conjugation, for example, /to phone/, /to bluff/, /to rubber-neck/, /to ante/, /to bunt/, /to wireless/, /to insurge/ and /to loop-the-loop/.†
conjugation = the grammatical change of verb forms to match context
- /To speed/ and /to shoe/ have become regular, not only because of the general tendency toward the weak conjugation, but also for logical reasons.†
- The conjugation of /to give/, however, is yet very uncertain, and so Lardner may report accurately.†
- The conjugation of /to win/ is yet far from fixed.†
- In American its conjugation coalesces with that of /am/ in the following manner: /Present/ I am /Past Perfect/ I had of ben /Present Perfect/ I bin (or ben) /Future/ I will be /Past/ I was /Future Perfect/ (wanting) And in the subjunction: /Present/ If I am /Past Perfect/ If I had of ben /Past/ If I was All signs of the subjunctive, indeed, seem to be disappearing from vulgar American.†
Definitions:
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(1)
(conjugate as in: conjugate the verb) grammatical changes of verb forms to agree with other words in a sentence for tense, number, person, and other thingsEnglish tense example:
She writes.
She is writing.
She will write tomorrow.
She has written in the past.
English number example:
Jane is...
Jane and Susan are...
Most verbs are conjugated by changing their suffix and sometimes adding a helping verb. Most verbs follow the same pattern in English. Those that follow a different pattern are called irregular verbs.
Here is an example of English conjugation of the present and past tenses for a regular, irregular, and the most irregular verb:Present tense regular irregular most irregular 1st person singular I talk drink am 2nd person singular you talk drink are 3rd person singular he, she, it talks drinks is plural 1st-3rd person we, you, they talk drink are Past tense 1st person singular I talked drank was 2nd person singular you talked drank were 3rd person singular he, she, it talked drank was plural 1st-3rd person we, you, they talked drank were -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Conjugate also has specialized meanings in chemistry and medicine. It can also refer to the joining of things--especially pairs.