"Sinked Isn't Even a Word."

A couple of days ago, my family and I were all piled in the car, heading to my mom's house for dinner when, somehow, we got on the topic of iPhones. My 13-year-old daughter, M, was complaining because my husband had had to delete some photos, videos, apps, etc. from her 8G iPhone a few days before in order to run an update - when they hadn't been saved to her laptop yet. So, I asked him, "Why didn't you back her phone up before you started deleting stuff? And when was the last time her phone was even synced?"

Before he could even respond, however, M interjected with "Mom, SINKED isn't even a word! The past tense of 'sink' is 'sunk'" Yes, she went there - trying to challenge the English major (not trying to sound arrogant here. It's just a running joke in our family. You don't challenge Mom when it comes to grammar, unless you want to get schooled. Haha).

So, that lead to an entertaining conversation about sync v. sink. Initially, I tried taking the responsible, logical  approach and use it as a teaching opportunity - explaining to my daughter's impressionable mind that "sync" is short for "synchronize" (then proceeded to give her a definition of the word), whereas "sink" is to become submerged (like in water) or to descend.  I then gave her an example, saying that I SYNCED my phone to the computer to back it up, but the last time it was SINKED (hehe) was when I was taking a bath a year or so ago and she accidentally dropped it in the water after I had just finished telling her NOT to bring the phone to me while I was in the bathtub. Doh! She didn't find my attempt at humor very amusing though. Hehe.

That's when my husband decided to be clever and add in his two cents. "Yeah," he said. "And do you know what it means to be "in sync"?

So I started to explain that it's when two people are on the same page or are working in harmony on something.

"No," He replied with a triumphant, sly grin. "It means you are a gay boy band from the 90's." Haha.

And there you have it, folks - a logical and descriptive clarification of sync v. sink. ;)

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