Usage note:As with many verbs of the pattern
sing, sang, sung and
ring, rang, rung, there is some confusion about the forms for the past tense and past participle of
drink. The historical reason for this confusion is that originally verbs of this class in Old English had a past-tense singular form in
a but a past-tense plural form in
u. Generally the form in
a has leveled out to become the standard past-tense form:
We drank our coffee. However, the past-tense form in
u, though considered nonstandard, occurs often in speech:
We drunk our coffee. The standard and most frequent form of the past participle of
drink in both speech and writing is
drunk:
Who has drunk all the milk? However, perhaps because of the association of
drunk with intoxication,
drank is widely used as a past participle in speech by educated persons and must be considered an alternate standard form:
The tourists had drank their fill of the scenery. See also drunk.