Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

For this feature (based on WALS feature 79, by Ljuba Veselinova), we ask whether verbs exhibit suppletion (different stems in different grammatical contexts) depending on different tense or aspect forms. We distinguish two degrees of suppletion. In strong suppletion, there are two different stems that share no phonological material at all (as English go vs. went), whereas in weak suppletion, the two irregularly related stems share some phonological material (as English think vs. thought).

Formal irregularity is determined by synchronic, not by diachronic criteria; therefore, the historical origin of the suppletive forms and their etymologies are not taken into account here.