W hat is the past tense of the verb "drink" — is it "drank" or "drunk"? Both can be correct, but what's the difference, and when should each be employed? There's a trick to knowing when to use each verb tense, so let's toast to clarity.
Both of these sentences are correct:
She drank a cup of coffee.
I have drunk too much coffee.
"Drank" is the simple past tense of "drink." It's used when describing an action that happened in the past. "Drunk" is the past participle form, and it requires a helping verb — also known as an auxiliary verb — for grammatical structure. Depending on the verb tense, you can use "has," "have," or "had" with "drunk."
She drank three lemonades today. (Simple past tense)
She has drunk all the lemonade. (Present perfect tense)
We have drunk all the lemonade. (Plural present perfect tense)
By the time we arrived, she had drunk all the lemonade. (Past perfect tense)
"Drink" tends to confuse people because it falls into a category of strong irregular verbs, a term from historical grammar. These verbs form their past tenses not by adding "-ed," like regular verbs, but by changing the internal vowel of the word. Classic examples include:
Swim, swam, swum
Begin, began, begun
Drink, drank, drunk
These patterns go back to Old English and are often referred to as "strong" because of how they form their tenses through vowel shifts (known as ablaut) rather than "weak" endings, like adding "-ed." The English language used to have more of these strong verbs, but over time, most adopted the "-ed" form. The remaining few can still trip us up.
Furthermore, it doesn't help that "drunk" is also an adjective (as in, "The punch was so strong that Aunt Sally got drunk from just one glass.). That ubiquity can make the word "drunk" a go-to choice, even when it's grammatically incorrect.
The key to using the verbs "drank" and "drunk" correctly is looking and listening for those auxiliary verbs: "have," "has," and "had." But if you're "drunk," you might need a little help — grammatically speaking. |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar