have a figurative meaning, and weak and strong past participles sometimes coexist within the language. Sometimes, this seems to be the case. For instance, compare strong and figurative bedorwe jeug ("spoiled youth") to weak and literal bederfde yoghurt ("spoiled yoghurt"), or strong and figurative gebroke hart ("broken heart") to weak and literal gebreekte vaas ("broken vase"). Nonetheless, this notion is not 100% accurate. Sometimes the strong past participle just happens to be more common. For instance, the strong participles are used in bevrore groente ("frozen vegetables") and aangenome kinders ("adopted children"). German From West Germanic to Old High German: High German consonant shift ē > ia ai > ei, then ei > ē before r, h and w au > ou, then ou > ō before dentals (þ, d, t, n, l, s, z, r) and h. e > i before u Class 1 has two subclasses, depending on the vowel in the past singular: 1a rītan rītu reit ritum giritan ("to ride") 1b līhan līhu lēh ligum giligan ("to loan" – note grammatischer Wechsel.) Class 2b verbs are rare, unlike in the more northern languages. A few relics of reduplication remain: ana-stōzan ana-sterōz ("to strike") pluozan pleruzzun ("to sacrifice"), in Upper German with the change b > p ki-scrōtan ki-screrōt ("to cut"), in Upper German with the change g > k būan biruun ("to dwell"); this was not a class 7 strong verb originally Changes from Old High German to Modern German: io, ia, ie > ī (spelled <ie>) ei, ī > ai (retaining the spelling <ei>) ou, ū > au ȳ > ɔy (spelled <eu> or <äu>) i > ī (spelled <ie>) before a single consonant. Alternations between past singular and plural are eliminated by generalising part 3 or part 2. If part 3 is generalised in verbs with alternations of the s-r type, it is not just generalised to the past singular but also to the present. The classes are still well preserved in modern German. Class 1 In class 1, part 3 is generalised, eliminating the older -ei- or -e-. However, a new subdivision arises because the i of the past tense forms is lengthened to ie before a single consonant. reiten ritt geritten ("to ride") versus leihen lieh geliehen ("to loan"). Class 1 verbs in modern German are: Class 1 with a long vowel in the preterite and participle (aɪ̯-i:-i:) : , , , ,