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The difference in these vowels marks variously a difference in tense or aspect (e.g. sing/sang/sung), transitivity (rise/raise), part of speech (sing/song), or grammatical number (goose/geese). That these sound alternations function grammatically can be seen as they are often equivalent to grammatical suffixes (an external modification ...
With irregular verbs like the verb sing, on the other hand, the forms sang and (have) sung cannot be deduced, so the learner of English must memorize three principal parts, sing – sang – (have) sung. The present 3S (he/she/it) is derived from the infinitive+'s' with the exception of verbs ending in a single -o, or ending in -s, -x, -z or ...
In particular, many such verbs derive from Germanic strong verbs, which make many of their inflected forms through vowel gradation, as can be observed in Modern English patterns such as sing–sang–sung. The regular verbs, on the other hand, with their preterites and past participles ending in -ed, follow the weak conjugation, which ...
Some of these have different past tense and past participle forms (like sing–sang–sung); others have the same form for both (like make–made–made). In some cases the past tense is regular but the past participle is not, as with show–showed–shown. For uses of the past participle, see § Non-finite forms below.
This has happened with the strong verbs (and some groups of weak verbs) in English; patterns such as sing–sang–sung and stand–stood–stood, although they derive from what were more or less regular patterns in older languages, are now peculiar to a single verb or small group of verbs in each case, and are viewed as irregular.
And yet all of those who sing the hymn have to voice the words “wretch like me.” The next line reads, “I once was lost but now am found.” Notice that the verb is passive — not “I found ...
The phenomenon of Indo-European ablaut was first recorded by Sanskrit grammarians in the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), and was codified by Pāṇini in his Aṣṭādhyāyī (4th century BCE), where the terms guṇa and vṛddhi were used to describe the phenomena now known respectively as the full grade and lengthened grade.
sing – sang – sung resing – resang – resung: Strong, class 3: sink – sank/sunk – sunk/sunken: Strong, class 3: The form sunken appears in some adjectival uses sit – sat – sat babysit – babysat – babysat housesit – housesat – housesat resit – resat – resat: Strong, class 5: slay – slew/slayed – slain/slayed ...