And here all along I thought their only purpose was to befuddle me. I had
truly never noticed those pairings in English.
Again, thanks, LN!
Grace
Actually, the easiest way to remember it is probably just to think of
English verbs (such as "rise" and "raise", "sit" and sat", "lie" and
"lay", "drink" and "drench") that work the same way. Here's some
more. The strong verbs are on the left; weak ones with causative and
transitive meanings are on the right:
STRONG ............... WEAK
drífa "to drift, rush, throng" : dreifa "to scatter, strew, sprinkle"
fara "to go" : foera "to bring"
liggja "to lie" : leggja "to lay"
rísa "to rise" : reisa "to raise"
sitja "to sit" : setja "to set"
sofa "to sleep" : svefja "to soothe, lull to sleep"
spretta "to spring up" : spretta "to make spring up, tear open, undo"
springa "to spring; spurt out" : sprengja "to cause to burst"
støkkva "to jump" : støkkva "to make jump, startle, drive off; sprinkle"
vinda "to wind, twist" : venda "to wend, turn; change, convert"