ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Germanic weak verb

A Germanic weak verb is like a special type of word that is not very strong. It’s a bit like a weakling that needs some help to do things. When we use this kind of word, we need to add an ending to it to show what time something happened in the past.

For example, let's take the word “walk.” This is a Germanic weak verb. If we want to talk about something that happened in the past, like yesterday, we need to add an “-ed” at the end of the word “walked.”

So, if we wanted to say “I walked to school yesterday,” we add the -ed to make “walked” and then say “I walked to school yesterday.”

There are a lot of Germanic weak verbs in English, and they all behave in the same way. They are weak and need help to show what time something happened in the past. So next time you want to talk about something that happened in the past with a weak verb, just remember to add an “-ed” at the end!