A whale sunk a firefighting boat!

[BillTre]

This is a quick summary of the sinking by Sal Mercogliano:

 

[berkeman]

Yeah, probably had a whale of a headache later.

 

[PeroK]

Is "sunk" correct in US English? In UK English the simple past tense is "sank".

 

[berkeman]

Is "sunk" correct in US English? In UK English the simple past tense is "sank".

Google says this:

Use sank as the simple past tense (e.g., "The ship sank") and sunk as the past participle (e.g., "The ship has sunk"). While dictionaries note that using sunk for the simple past tense occurs in informal speech, sticking to sank is the standard rule.

And I use "sunk" as a verb, like "the whale sunk the boat".

 

[PeroK]

And I use "sunk" as a verb, like "the whale sunk the boat".

What about "sung a song" or "rung a bell"?

Those sound even worse to me.

 

[KathaleenStonebraker]

I actually say "sank" for the simple past myself, but "sunk" shows up everywhere in casual talk. It's one of those things that just sounds fine until you think about it too hard.

 

[A.T.]

Is "sunk" correct in US English? In UK English the simple past tense is "sank".

The tense forms of irregular verbs are arbitrary anyway. You either stick to a rule, or all bets are off.