ABSTRACT
3.1(1). In English, as in the other Gothonic languages (and in the Romanic languages), the perfect and pluperfect are formed by means of an auxiliary and the second participle. In the case of transitive verbs all these languages agree in using the verb have (haben, avoir, avere, in Spanish and Port, also the continuation of Lat. tenere). This have has sunk down, or been raised, to being a mere grammatical instrument in these combinations, as shown by its having been used (from the earliest accessible times) not only in connexion with verbs like catch, where its original meaning is in its place (I have caught the fish = I have the fish as caught), but also in all other cases, e. g. I have lost (forgotten, thrown away, seen) the key. The participle at first agreed in gender and number (and case) with the object, but in all these languages it tends more and more to be used in one invariable form, because it is felt to belong more intimately to have than to the object, which then becomes the object not of have, but of the composite tense. But this development, which is not yet completed in modern French, was in English ended long before the period with which this grammar deals.
