past voer) Class 7 Class 7 has shrunk in the modern language, like class 6 many of its verbs have become semi-strong. This class has an -ie- in the past tense, the past participle has the same vowel as the present tense. (The verbs with * are nowadays mostly semi-strong) Class 7a has disappeared. The verbs ("to call") and ("to separate") have become semi-strong. Class 7b: , *. Class 7c: , , , , , , * (The meaning to "to grow" is always strong but is archaic, the meaning "to wash" is mostly semi-strong). One verb displays L-vocalization: houden – hield – gehouden ("to hold") As in German, two anomalous class 7c verbs have formed new present stems, and shortened the vowel in the past tense: vangen – ving – gevangen ("to catch") and hangen – hing – gehangen ("to hang"). The suppleted past tense of the verb gaan ("to go") also belongs to this class and is declined: gaan – ging – gegaan. Class 7d: , , , *. Class 7e: . Semi-strong roots with a weak past tense and a strong participle: , , , , , , (uitscheiden is a class 1 verb however), , , (in the meaning 'to split'), , (the past had -ield-, like houden), , (the past had -ielt-, like houden). Other A special case is , which is a weak verb that can decline a strong participle in some circumstances, even though the verb was never strong to begin with. Afrikaans The distinction between simple past, present and past perfect has been lost in Afrikaans, as the original past tense has fallen out of use almost entirely, being replaced with the old present perfect tense using (usually) a strong past participle. For example, the ancestral Dutch hij zong has become hy het gesing ("he sang/has sung/had sung"). Modal verbs tend to retain their strong past tense, and a handful of other verbs do so too. Verbs almost never retain both a strong past tense and a strong past participle, due to the loss of the grammatical distinction. The exception is wees ("to be"), which does retain both was and gewees. Nonetheless, there are many verbs for which the new past tense is formed with a strong past participle, such as geboë from buig ("bend") or gedrewe from dryf ("drive" to set into motion). The notion exists that strong past participles always