This paper discusses the English verbal inflectional system within the lexicalist framework. A lexicalist approach to syntax is one in which all syntactic grammatical relations, lexical items, and the result of transformations are subject to semantic interpretation. That is, semantic information cannot be generated by syntactic rules. A filtering convention is described which filters out the set of desinences or verb endings which have the same semantic interpretation. The filter works in two ways. One is through lexical subcategorized features which require the presence or the lack of an ending where such an ending is unpredictable. The second is by agreement which filters out the ungrammatical form subject to lexical subcategorized features which account for exceptions to agreement. In all remaining verb stems, the unmarked endings stay, and are grammatical. The filtering convention, with accompanying readjustment rules, and the exclusion of abstract systematic phonemic representation eliminate the need for poorly motivated rules in the phonological component of the grammar. (CLK)