Drank

Question

Please tell me the difference between these two sentences:

I'd been drinking for a while when we took that picture. And

I drank a lot before taking that picture.

Doesn't it basically mean the same thing?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Yes.  The first is more formal.

PreciousJones · Answer

Thanks Mister Micawber,

How about:

I had drank a lot when we took that picture. Same meaning?

Or I had drank a lot before taking that picture. - redundant but does it mean the same thing?

Mister Micawber · Answer

No, no, no.  Please review your irregular verbs before you worry about subtler points.

PreciousJones · Answer

Mister MicawberNo, no, no. Please review your irregular verbs before you worry about subtler points.

I don't understand...

BarbaraPA · Answer

Drank is not the particle form of "to drink."

I had drank is wrong.

PreciousJones · Answer

But the dictionary says otherwise....

I thought drunk was nonstandard?

BarbaraPA · Answer

Huh. According to the dictionary I just looked at, "drank" is the alternative form of the participle. However, "drunk" is far more commonly used - to the point that I (like Mr. M) thought "drank" was non-standard as the participle.

I assure you, "drunk" is not non-standard.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Yes, I thought it was wrong. The American Heritage Dictionary offers no alternative to 'drunk'.

drink

VERB:
drank (dr

ngk), drunk (dr

ngk) , drink·ing, drinks

Here are Random House's observations:

—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.

Clive · Answer

Hi guys,

Hmmmm.

I had drank . . . doesn't sound like educated speech to me.

Depends who-all youse hangs out wit, I s'pose.

Clive

BarbaraPA · Answer

So with three such lofty persons as ourselves ([<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' alt='Emotion: wink'/>]) saying it sure sounds wrong, it would be best to avoid it, yes?

Drank

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