Is It Drank or Drunk?
The past tense of drink is drank. Remember: the past tense is used to describe an action that occurred in the past and is now finished.
- I drank a lot of soda yesterday.
- I had drunk too much coffee before bed last night, so I couldn’t go to sleep.
- The milk was drunk by my thirsty toddler.
“Drink,” “Drank,” “Drunk”
There are regular verbs and irregular verbs.
Regular verbs are those in which the past tense and past participle can be formed simply by adding “-d” or “-ed.” For example, play is a regular verb.
Irregular verbs don’t follow typical conjugation patterns. In other words, they have their own unique forms when it comes to their past tenses or past participle forms.
Take is an example of an irregular verb because its past tense and past participle forms are took and taken, respectively.
Drink is an irregular verb that means “to ingest liquid through the mouth.”
Below, we’ll go over its past tense and past participle forms.
“Drank” Is the Past Tense of “Drink”
The past tense of a verb refers to an action that was started and completed in the past.
Drink is an irregular verb; therefore, its past tense is drank, not drinked. LanguageTool’s Grammar Checker can help ensure you’re using all forms of drink correctly.
“Drunk” Is the Past Participle of “Drink”
The past participle is a form of a verb that is used with auxiliary verbs such as be and have to create the past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect tenses.
The past participle of drink is drunk.
The past perfect tense is used to describe an action that happened before some point in the past. It is formed by using the auxiliary verb had followed by the past participle of the verb.
The present perfect tense is used to refer to an action that happened at some point in the past but is relevant to the present. It is generally created using the auxiliary verb have, except with the singular third-person, which uses has.
The future perfect tense is used to describe an action that will be completed at some point in the future before another action. It is formed by using will have followed by the past participle of the verb.
The past participle form of a verb is also used to create a sentence using the passive voice.
It’s important to note that drunk can also function as a noun or adjective. As a noun, it refers to someone who is “intoxicated” or “habitually drinks alcohol excessively.”
As an adjective, drunk is used to describe someone who is “intoxicated and impaired by alcohol.”
In certain phrases, drunk can also be used figuratively. For example, drunk with power describes someone as “excessively and recklessly using their power.” Drunk in love describes someone as “being deeply and overwhelmingly in love.”
- A drunken brawl caused the night to end early.
“Drank” or “Drunk”: Never Stumble Over Your Words Again
Remember:
- Drank is the past tense of drink.
- Drunk is the past participle of drink.
The sentence construction can give you a clue on which word you should use. If it contains an auxiliary verb, such as have or be, then the word you want is drunk.
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