The English language can be tricky, especially after you’ve had a glass or two of wine. Earlier this week we were looking at the title of a map and wondered whether drank or drunk was correct in that particular case. Some Googling turned up this forum post, which inspired us to explore all the different tenses you can use to write a sentence about drinking wine.
About that map title. An astute reader emailed in to let us know we made the wrong choice. The drinking and learning never stops at VinePair!
Present Simple
He drinks five glasses of wine a day.
Present Continuous
He is drinking wine in a bathtub (while the cat is watching him washing his hair).
Present Perfect
Jeffery has drunk three glasses of wine on the beach this afternoon.
Present Perfect Continuous
I have been drinking wine through a straw.
Past Simple
Peter drank a small glass of red wine.
Past Continuous
She was drinking some red wine when everyone else at the table started laughing.
Past Perfect
We had drunk all the wine before we opened our eyes.
Past Perfect Continuous
We had been drinking wine for two hours when my wife walked into the restaurant.
Future Simple (will)
She will not drink Champagne.
Future Continuous
This time tomorrow we will be drinking Champagne. And we will be drinking from the same bottle.
Future Perfect
She will have drunk three bottles of wine by the end of the evening.
Future (going to)
Roberto is going to drink wine with his pasta.
Conditional Simple
If my wife drinks wine, I will too.
Conditional Continuous
They would be drinking wine if he owned a nicer bicycle and she put down the pan.
Conditional Perfect
She would have drunk wine but there was no corkscrew in her wicker basket.
This post was inspired by this thorough comment about grammar on the Coachella forums!
Images via Shutterstock.com
