tranken

Tranken is the simple past tense (preterite) form of the German verb trinken, meaning “to drink.” It is used with plural subjects in the past, as in wir tranken or sie tranken. The corresponding singular past forms are ich trank, du trankst, and er/sie/es trank. The past participle of trinken is getrunken.

Origin and relation: trinken is a common German verb with cognates in other Germanic languages. The preterite forms, including tranken, reflect the strong-verb conjugation patterns found in German for past actions. In modern usage, the perfect tense (haben/getrunken) is more common in everyday speech, while the preterite remains frequent in written narratives and formal contexts.

Usage notes: Tranken describes a completed drinking action in the past and is typically used when recounting events in a narrative style. When speaking, many speakers prefer the Perfekt tense (Wir haben getrunken) in ordinary conversation. Tranken can appear in literature, reports, and historical writing to convey a past sequence of events.

Examples:

- Wir tranken Wasser, bevor wir weiter gingen.

- Die Gäste tranken Wein zum Essen.

- In der Chronik tranken die Reisenden am Lagerfeuer.

See also:

- Trinken

- Präteritum (simple past)

- Perfekt (present perfect)