Is there any difference between the irregular verbs "Shrunk" & "Shrank"?

Someone asked me the other day and I said "I think "Shrunk" is American and "Shrank" is British .. but I was just stalling untill I found out for myself. (It was a student .. so I could'nt really say "Buggered if I know!")

I'll give you the American version. Keep in mind, that like the Grammar Police teach English in Thailand, verbs have three parts (V1, V2, V3).

V1: Present tense: shrink

V2: Simple past tense: shrank

V3: Perfect tenses: shrunk.

I am shrinking my clothes.

I shrank my clothes.

I have shrunk my clothes; my clothes are shrunk.

Oh, I'm sure some people say 'shrunken' for V3. I have shrunken my clothes.

Gee whiz, 'shrunk' sounds weird if you say it too many times.

Of course, grammar debates go on forever, and they hardly matter. Okay, it's bad manners to say, "Patchaporn shrankened her clothes," but anything close to the mark will usually communicate. And communication is far more important than the pedantic antics of the frantic grammarians.

Had a similar question about dreamt and dreamed???

And communication is far more important than the grandantic prantics of the grantic frammarians.

^ Excellent point ain't it???

And communication is far more important than the pedantic antics of the frantic grammarians.

That's how I feel too .. but I wanted to be "armed" with knowledge to to keep the pedantic twits at bay.

I did a Google search for the movie "Honey I shrunk the kids" . It was a a 50/50 toss up amongst the results as to which word was used in that title.

Then there was this little gem amongst the results ..

"The simple past tense form of “shrink” is “shrank” and the past participle is “shrunk”; it should be “Honey, I Shrank the Kids,” not ”Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” (Thanks a lot, Disney.)

“Honey, I've shrunk the kids” would be standard, and also grammatically acceptable is “Honey, I've shrunken the kids” (though deplorable from a child-rearing point of view). "

So from now on my answer to the question I was asked will be "nothing .. use either" (The poor little buggers are confused enough as it is!)

English is such a "mongrel" language it's pointless to try and set hard and fast rules to it.

Edited February 2, 200620 yr by keekwai

Could it be that it makes a difference whether it is used in the active or passive voice?

Mate if you dictionary.com it they'll usually tell you if it's Brit/American

Had a similar question about dreamt and dreamed???

http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa110698.htm

Differences Between American and British English

Past Simple/Past Participles

The following verbs have two acceptable forms of the past simple/past participle in both American and British English, however, the irregular form is generally more common in British English (the first form of the two) and the regular form is more common to American English.

Burn Burnt OR burned

Dream dreamt OR dreamed

Lean leant OR leaned

Learn learnt OR learned

Smell smelt OR smelled

Spell spelt OR spelled

Spill spilt OR spilled

Spoil spoilt OR spoiled

Mate if you dictionary.com it they'll usually tell you if it's Brit/American

Thanks Ken .. I'll make sure my laptops hanging around my neck next time a student asks me a curly question.

But honestly .. I had no idea at the time there was an American & British version of the verb in question. I just made that up on the spot to stall for time. Just a lucky fluke I was sort of half right.

Edited February 2, 200620 yr by keekwai

And I thought trying to learn the Thai language was difficult enough!

You say tomato, and I'll say tomato

And I thought trying to learn the Thai language was difficult enough!

You say tomato, and I'll say tomato

I have a constant daily fight with Bill Gates english no matter how many times I reset the dictionary and preference the U S enlish dictionary reappears it is not a labor of love and the colorful language is often heard ...so any reference to an american rule for the us of english gives me the willies . The best use of English certainly the most educating and explicit is in many of the India newspapers ,and particularly in Bangladesh ,, the reports provided me with daily educationand amusement ..full of dacoits , and miscreants , and nairdowells brilliant to read .

Concise Oxford English Dictionary

shrink

n verb (past shrank; past participle shrunk or (especially as adjective) shrunken)

Not sure it's anything to do with British/American English. For a good article about that see here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_...ish_Differences

Mate if you dictionary.com it they'll usually tell you if it's Brit/American

Thanks Ken .. I'll make sure my laptops hanging around my neck next time a student asks me a curly question.

But honestly .. I had no idea at the time there was an American & British version of the verb in question. I just made that up on the spot to stall for time. Just a lucky fluke I was sort of half right.

Well, if your students think that the verb to shrink is a difficult one then you can give them a break and ask them to write the present tense, simple past tense, and perfect tense of the following verbs:

to bid

to burst

to cast

to cost

to cut

to hit

to hurt

to let

to put

to set (as in to put or to place)

and to shut

Yes, Shrunken is an adjective! EG There's a man with a shrunken hand! Might be considered old fashioned by some...

I do agree, when you say the words many times they start to sound weird!

Hey!

What about the word 'thunk'. I thought that the Past Tense of 'think was 'thought' . But I regularly here 'thunk' bandied about!

Hey!

What about the word 'thunk'. I thought that the Past Tense of 'think was 'thought' . But I regularly here 'thunk' bandied about!

That's Kiwi English !

I hate stay and stayed, but then pay and paid....can't it ruddy well be consistent!

First I stank, then I thank about it, and I burst my bloomer thunking about the sound that a bag of sand makes, hitting the floor, more of a "thunk" than a "plunk" or a "thud." My mate thinked that the bag of sand thudded. I shuddered to have been thoughten about it.

Wasn't that a cartoon movie last year, "Shrenk"?