My wife made me think this morning about the verb “sink”.<\/p>\n
Problem:<\/strong> Explanation:<\/strong> This made me wonder about the difference between “sunk” and “sunken”.<\/p>\n And this led me to a dictionary.<\/p>\n The verb “sink” has these basic forms:<\/p>\n But here are the catches that lead to confusion:<\/p>\n Putting the above two lists together, we see that the verb “sink” actually has these basic forms:<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> My wife made me think this morning about the verb “sink”. Problem: Some pairs of these verb forms are synonyms, which causes confusion. Explanation: My wife used the word “sunken” this morning. This made me wonder about the difference between “sunk” and “sunken”. And this led me to a dictionary. The verb “sink” has these…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-verbs","category-versus"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nSome pairs of these verb forms are synonyms, which causes confusion.<\/p>\n
\nMy wife used the word “sunken” this morning.<\/p>\n\n
\n
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\nI recommend avoiding “sunk” as a preterite and instead always using “sank” as the preterite. And I recommend using “sunk” in your writing and speech as the past participle but recognizing that “sunken” is a standard alternative as a past participle, especially in literary references such as “The pirates were looking for sunken treasure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"