Stink, Stank, Stunk: Sniffing Out The Differences

Something smells rotten… You probably know that stink, stank, and stunk are used to describe smelly things, but can you sniff out when to properly use each word?

In this article, we will explain how and when to correctly use stink, stank, and stunk, explain why stink is considered to be an irregular verb, and provide examples of how to use stink, stank, and stunk in sentences. 

stank vs. stunk

The verb stink is an irregular verb. Stink is the base form of the verb, which can be used in the present tense and future tense (will stink) and as an infinitive.

For example:

• These old shoes really stink.
• Limburger cheese will stink even when it is good to eat. 
• Some bugs need to stink in order to make predators not want to eat them. 

The past tense form of stink is stank or stunk, and the past participle form is stunk. A verb is typically considered to be irregular if its past tense and/or past participle is formed without using the standard –ed or –d endings used in regular verbs. This is the case with stink. Instead of stinked, the past tense is stank or stunk, and the past participle is stunk.

While it’s acceptable to use either stank or stunk for the past tense form, stank is the more common.

For example:

• My clothes stank/stunk after I fell into the pile of trash.
• The starting lineup stank/stunk so badly that the team lost by fifty points. 

Only stunk is used as the past participle of stink. Because stunk is the past participle, it’s used with the auxiliary verbs have, has, and had to form the perfect verb tenses. The verb phrase has stunk is used with a third person singular subject (with the exception of singular they). The phrase have stunk is used with any other subject, including first person singular and plural, second person singular and plural, and third person plural.

For example:

• My cat has stunk for the past week after her run-in with a skunk. 
• The onions have stunk pretty badly whenever I need to chop them.  

Like all other past participles, stunk is also the form that’s used in the passive voice. When used this way, it’s used with the various forms of the helping verb be. However, the verb stink is not often used as a transitive verb in the passive voice. 

For example:

• The stage was stunk up by the terrible actors. 

Verbs similar to stink

Some other irregular verbs that end in –ink also follow the stink, stank, stunk pattern, such as with sink (sank, sunk), drink (drank, drunk), and shrink (shrank, shrunk).

But be careful. Not all verbs ending in –ink follow this pattern. The verbs blink, wink, clink, slink, link, and ink are all regular. Their past tense and past participles are formed by simply adding –ed. And the verb think is irregular in a different way: its past tense and past participle form is thought.

Based on the pattern used for stink, sink, and others, some people may jokingly or mistakenly use these forms for similar verbs, such as by using thank as a past tense or thunk as past participle of think.

Examples of stink, stank, and stunk used in a sentence

Can you smell that? We’re catching a whiff of example sentences that show how we typically use stink, stank, and stunk. 

• These dirty clothes stink and need to be washed. 
• After the sewage truck crashed, the whole street stank for a month. 
• Every idea he has ever given me has stunk worse than the last one. 
• This durian stinks, it stank yesterday too, and any meal I have ever had with durian in it has stunk like rotting garbage.