The principal parts of go are go, went, gone. In other respects, the modern English verb conjugates regularly. The irregularity of the principal parts is due to their disparate origin in definitely two and possibly three distinct Indo-European roots. Unlike every other English verb except be, the preterite of go is not etymologically related to its infinitive. Instead, the preterite of go, went, descends from a variant of the preterite of wend, the descendant of Old Englishwendan and Middle Englishwenden. Old English wendan and gān shared semantic similarities. The similarities are evident in the sentence "I'm wending my way home", which is equivalent to "I'm going home".
did not use any variation of went for the general preterite of go; instead, the wordēode was used, which lingered on as the now obsolete yede, yode and yead. Old English ēode 'he went' is made up of a defective preterite base ēo- and the weak dental suffix -de common in most modern English past tense forms. The base ēo- and its Gothic counterpart iddja show the following development:
Both forms are derived from the PIE root *' based on close matches with past tense forms of Sanskrityā́ti 'he goes, travels'. The root is regarded as an iterative-intensive derivative of the more common *' 'to go'. One reflex of * is Latinīre 'to go' which gave many English words such as ambition, exit, introit, issue, preterite, and so forth. It is also found in the Slavic languages as iti and similar forms.
Development of a new preterite
In Middle English, ēode evolved into ȝede, yede, and yode. By the 15th century in southern England, wende had become synonymous with go, but its infinitive and present tense forms had ceased to be in frequent use. This was also true of the various ēode-derived preterites of go, thus a variant preterite of wend absorbed the function. After went became established as the preterite of go, wend took on a new preterite, wended. In Northern English and Scots, yede was gaed, regularly formed by suffixing -ed to a variant of go. Due to the influence of the region, southern English forms constitute the standard language of England, and so went is the standard English preterite. Spencer used yede to mean go with yode as its preterite form but as dialect.
Origin of ''went''
Went, the modern past tense of go, was originally the strong past tense form of Middle English wenden 'to turn, direct; depart', from Old English wendan, itself from Proto-Germanic *wandijaną 'to turn'. Cognates include West Frisian weine, Dutch, Low German, German wenden, Yiddish ווענדן, Swedish vända, Danish, Norwegian vende, and Gothic wandjan. The original forms of the ME past tense were wende, wended, and past participlewend, but variant wente developed from about 1200. By ca. 1500, wended had prevailed in the transitive senses, whereas wente, restricted to intransitive senses, rivalled and replaced gos older past tense, yede/yode. Proto-Germanic *wandijaną is a causative derivative of *windaną 'to wind, wrap', from which the modern English verb wind developed. Cognates include West Frisian wine, Dutch, Low German, German winden, Swedish vinda, Danish and Norwegian vinde, and Gothic -windan. PGmc *windaną comes from Proto-Indo-European *' 'to wind, twist', which also gave Umbrian preuenda 'turn!', Tocharian A/B wänt/wänträ 'covers, envelops', Greekáthras 'wagon', Armeniangind 'ring', and Sanskrit vandhúra'' 'carriage framework'.
Go is historically derived from at least three Proto-Indo-European roots: *ǵʰēh₁, the source of go and gone ; *h₁ei, the source of ēode; and *u̯endʰ, the source of went as well as wend and wind. Only two roots are continually used in their modern English reflexes go/gone and went.
Suppletion in other Germanic languages
The Dutch, Low German, German, and Scandinavian verbs cognate to go, e.g. Dutch gaan, Low German gahn, German gehen, and Danish/Norwegian/Swedish gå, also have suppletive past forms, namely the preterite ging of Dutch and German, güng of Low German, gick of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, and the past participle gegangen of German. These forms are relics from earlier, more widespread words that meant 'to walk, go' and which survive sporadically in Scots gang, East Frisiangunge, and Icelandicganga. Some obsolete cognates include Middle Low German, Middle High Germangangen, early modern Swedish gånga, and Gothic gaggan. These are reflexes of Proto-Germanic *ganganą, from Proto-Indo-European * 'to step', which also gave Lithuanianžeñgti 'to stride', Greek kochōnē 'perineum', Avestanzanga 'ankle', and Sanskrit jáṁhas 'step', jaṅghā 'shank'. Therefore, the case of English go is not unique among the Germanic languages, and it would appear that most have in a like manner reproduced equivalent suppletive conjugations for their words for 'to go', suggesting a cyclical change patterned after the state of affairs in Proto-Germanic.
Phrasal forms
The verb may be combined with various prepositions to form phrasal verbs such as "go around" and "go off". The verb go is used to form the going to future, in sentences like "I'm going to finish my work today."
Perfect forms
In perfect forms of the verb the past participle gone is often replaced by that of be, namely been. For example:
