SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. I med _or_ can ha’. 1. We med _or_ can ha’. 2. Thee medst _or_ canst ha’. 2. Ye _or_ you med _or_ can ha’. 3. He med _or_ can ha’. 3. They med _or_ can ha’.
SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. If I has. 1. If we has. 2. If thee hast 2. If ye or you has. 3. If he ha’. 3. If they has.
Present or Active, Havun or Avun. Perfect, ’Ad. Compound Perfect, Havun ’ad.
The auxiliary and neuter verb To Be, is maltreated as follows:
(Toby or not Toby?--that is the question!)
SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. I be. 1. We be. 2. Thee bist. 2. Ye _or_ you be. 3. He, she or it am. 3. They be _or_ am.
SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. I wor, or wus. 1. We wus. 2. Thee wort. 2. Ye _or_ you wus. 3. He wur. 3. They wur.
“When I say as you was, I mean, as you were.”
SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. I’ve a bin. 1. We’ve a bin. 2. Thee’st a bin. 2. Ye _or_ you’ve a bin. 3. He’ve a bin. 3. They’ve a bin.
SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. Let I be. 1. Let we be. 2. Be thee _or_ ’st thee be. 2. Do ’ee be. 3. Let un be. 3. Let um be.
Present Tense, For to be. Perfect, For to ha’ bin.
Present, Beun. Perfect, Bin. Compound Perfect, Havun bin.
If _being_ a younster, I had not been smitten, Of _having been_ jilted I should not complain, Take warning from me all ye lads who are bitten, When this part of Grammar occurs to your brain.
As there is a certain _intensity_ of feeling abroad, which renders people indisposed to trouble themselves with _verbal_ matters, we shall take the liberty of making very short work of the Regular Verbs. Even Murray can only afford to conjugate one example,--To Love. The learner must amplify this part of the Grammar for himself: and we recommend him to substitute for “to love,” some word less harrowing to a sensitive mind: as, “to fleece, to tax,” verbs which excite disagreeable emotions only in a sordid one; and which also, by association of ideas, conduct us to useful reflections on Political Economy. We advise all whom it may concern, however, to pay the greatest attention to this part of the Grammar, and before they come to the Verbs Regular, to make a particular study of the Auxiliary Verbs: not only for the excellent reasons set forth in “Tristram Shandy,” but also to avoid those awkward mistakes in which the Comicalities of the Verbs, or Verbal Comicalities, chiefly consist.