2. Thou should have been writing. 2. You should have been writing.

341. Some of the above forms are either obsolete, or rarely

used in the current language. The form for the second

person singular is confined to poetry, poetical prose, or to invocations to the Supreme Being. In ordinary prose the second person plural is used for the singular.

Many of the forms in the indicative mood are now commonly employed instead of those in the subjunctive.

347. On examining the foregoing tenses, it will be observed that the passive voice is defective in the Imperfect

and Intentional, and is destitute of the Continuous forms of the Perfect and Intentional.

348. The verbs be, have, shall, will, and go, which are employed to form the tenses of an ordinary verb, are, when so employed, termed auxiliaries. Their inflection is frequently irregular. The various forms in old and modern English are exhibited in the list of irregular verbs.

349. The following is a list of those verbs in modern English which belong either wholly, or in part, to the strong conjugation. The forms in italics are obsolete, or rarely used.

I. Verbs which modify the root-vowel, and form the Perfect Participle in -en.

II. Verbs which modify the root-vowel, and drop e from the Participial suffix.

III. Verbs which modify the root-vowel, and drop the Participial suffix.

IV. Verbs which do not modify the root-vowel, and which drop the suffix.

V. Verbs which modify the root-vowel, and form the Past Indefinite and the Perfect Participle by suffixing -t or -d.

VI. Verbs ending in d, which simply change d into t. VII. Verbs with weak Past Indefinite, and strong Participle.

VIII. Verbs which have passed from the strong to the weak conjugation.

drink {drunk

drank,

drunken, drunk i-dronk.