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Answer: The past tense of sink is sank. The past participle of sink is sunk.
Complete Answer:
To understand whether the correct past tense of sink is sank or sunk, it is important to know how verb tenses work. The verb sink is an irregular verb, which means its past and past participle forms do not follow the regular -ed pattern.
Here is how sink changes in its different forms:
| Form of Verb | Tense | Example Sentence |
| Sink | Simple Present Tense | Boats sink when they have holes in them. |
| Sank | Simple Past Tense | The ship sank in the storm yesterday. |
| Sunk | Past Participle Tense | The treasure has sunk to the bottom of the sea. |
- Use sank when you are talking about an action that happened in the past without using has, have, or had.
- Use sunk when the verb is used along has, have, or had, which shows perfect tenses.
More Examples of Irregular Verbs
| Base Verb | Past Tense | Past Participle |
| Drink | Drank | Drunk |
| Sing | Sang | Sung |
| Swim | Swam | Swum |
| Ring | Rang | Rung |
| Sink | Sank | Sunk |
You Should Also Know
In regular verbs, we usually add -ed to the base form to make the past tense (For example, walk becomes walked). However, irregular verbs do not follow this rule. They change in their own way, and each verb must be learned individually.
For example,
- Go becomes went, not goed.
- Eat becomes ate, not eated.
That is why we say sank for the past tense of sink, and sunk for its past participle.
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