I have been writing I had been writing I shall have been writing It should be observed here that must have been has a very different meaning from must. He must have been ignorant of it—signifies he certainly was ignorant, &c. Do, like SHALL, is compounded with the in finitive, omitting the preposition to; and was formerly more used than it is at present. Its modern use is confined to questions, as, Do you think so? negations, as, I Do not believe it: entreaty, as, Do write to me: and emphatic assertion, as, I DO really think-I DID suppose. In the participle past it has sometimes a peculiar sense, and signifies a completed action, as, I have DONE writing, i. e. I have finished. The meat is DONE, i. e. it is sufficiently cooked. I am DONE up, i.e. my strength is at an end. He is DONE for, i.e. his life or his fortune is finished. In the participle present it has likewise some peculiar meanings: He is DOING well, signifies, either that he is prospering in fortune, or recovering from sickness-he is DOING ill, means the reverse of these. That will do, signifies, it is enough. I am undone, means I am ruined; but to undo is to unfasten. Do, compounded with the prepositions on and off, forms two regular verbs, namely, to don, i. e. to do on or d'on a vestment, and its opposite, to doff, i. e. do off or d'off. The irregular verbs are numerous, and though they might be to a certain degree classified, an alphabetical order is more convenient, and it is therefore adopted. * Perhaps more properly besoughten; the termination in en appearing to be proper to those verbs whose past ends in ought, as fought, foughten. Indeed, more than two-thirds of the irregular verbs have still this termination in the participle, and probably in many more it has been dropped merely from the English habit of contracting words in speaking them. † As, "Let us give as we are most bounden, continual thanks, &c."-Liturgy. split) Cling Cleave, (to clove or cleft cloven or cleft clang+ or clung clung * Verbs which have the præter and present alike in the first person, nevertheless make edst in the second person singular, as I cast, thou castedst. + Lowth gives clang as the præter, and from analogy at any rate it ought to be so. Crope is become obsolete. |