§§z8i-2] Verbs 133 they are called imperfect presents (as klusan, to choose; hilpan, to help; itan, to eat; &c.), and in the latter case aorist presents (as ga-lfikan, to shut; truđan, to tread; &c.). The present was formed by means of the thematic vowels, e, o, which came between the root and the personal endings, thus the present singular and plural of the verb lor 'to bear' was *bherō (from *bh6r-o(. *bhár-e-si, *bhár-e-tí. *bhēr-o-mes, (-mos), *bh£r-e-te, *bh6r-o-nti. Verbs of this class are generally called ō-verbs because the first person singular ends in -ō. The old distinction between the mi- and the ō-conjugation was fairly well preserved in Greek, as εΙμί, / am, εΐμι, / go, SíSsjit, / give; μένω, I remain, πείθω, / persuade; τρίβω. / rub, τόφω, / smoke. § 281. In treating the history of the verbal forms in Gothic it is advisable to start out partly from prim. Germanic and partly from Gothic itself. The Indg. verbal system underwent so many radical changes in prim. Germanic that it would be necessary to treat here in detail the verbal system of the non-Germanic languages such as Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin in order to account for all the changes. In Gothic, as in the other Germanic languages, the verbs are divided into two great classes—Strong and Weak— according to the formation of the preterite tense. Besides these two great classes of strong and weak verbs, there are a few others which will be treated under the general heading Minor Groups. § 282. Strong verbs form their preterite by ablaut (nima, / take, nam, / took), or simply by reduplication (háita, / call, haíháit, / called], or else by ablaut and reduplication combined (tēka, / touch, taítōk, I touched). The strong verbs are sub-divided into two classes: non-reduplicated and reduplicated verbs. The non-reduplicated verbs are divided into six classes according to the first six ablaut-