TENSE MOMENTS TENSE MOMENTS
All together now everyone, please, repeat after me: sink sank sunk, shrink shrank shrunk, stink stank stunk. (It’s a pity that it’s not also think thank thunk, but therein lies the ever-present illogical inconsistency of English).
Examples: I sink today; I sank yesterday; I have sunk previously, on occasion.
I shrink today; I shrank yesterday; I have shrunk from time to time.
I stink today; I stank yesterday; I have stunk now and then.
Notice the pattern? Sunk, shrunk, and stunk require a helping verb: most typically some form of “have” (has, had, etc.)
My problem? Sank, shrank, and stank seem to be vanishing from many people’s speech!
As a former teaching colleague of mine said many years ago, “And there is that ridiculous grammatically-incorrect movie title up there on the theater marquis for all to see: ‘Honey, I Shrunk The Kids!’ Thus reinforcing to all of the numbskulls out there to say ‘shrunk’ when they mean ‘shrank!’”
Please, folks, let’s work on it, shall we?
Speaking of theaters, now we’ll have a few selected short subjects:
The past tense of “sneak” is “sneaked.” “Snuck” is an incorrect vulgarism that sounds utterly dreadful!
The past tense of “drag” is “dragged.”
The past tense of “drug” is “drugged.”
The past tense of “lend” is “lent.” “Loan” is a noun; thus “loaned” does not exist!
The past tense of “spit” is “spat.” Sigh!
