Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi, that's my question. I can't figure out where the students learned, "Last night I was drunken." I thought they were supposed to be excellent at grammar and poor at conversation.

Well, I guess that even if they had studied the difference between predicative "drunk" and attributive "drunken", it is the latter that was the more memorable/unusual to them and became the default option in their minds. Probably their books made a hash of it and didn't have enough rounds of "What shall we do with the drunken sailor".

I can't imagine any students who'd study with me would have a problem:

Hey, it's Drunken Duncan! (said to me even when I'm sober the next day, the next week etc.)

Duncan was/got really drunk last night - he drank over 10 pints!

That person who told you Koreans were excellent at grammar was a Korean, I imagine you'll find if you think back. They probably also told you how the Koreans invented printing etc, etc.........

However, I don't know why you think this is elementary grammar. Drunk-on-Powery (alias fluffy hamster) may believe, due to the "drunken sailor" song, that we always say "drunken" before the noun, and drunk after the noun, but I think the former usage is becoming obsolete.

Despite not having bothered to check on these things, I'll challenge your "becoming obselete" conclusion there, woody, I reckon people do still say "drunken English football hooligans" and the like a fair bit. I wouldn't be too upset if anyone said "drunk" or "rampaging" football hooligans, though.

Drunken sailors and Drunken Duncan R.I.P.