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Learned vs. Learnt

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jes422
Newbie
United States
Joined 5965 days ago

3 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Swedish, Esperanto

 
 Message 1 of 15
02 December 2007 at 6:42am | IP Logged 
Ever since I found this site, I have seen the past tense of "to learn" spelled "learned" and "learnt". I searched on yahoo and found this site http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutspelling/lea rnt?view=uk

If you don't want to go to the site, it says that "learnt" is British English and "learned" is American English. They also list "burn, dream, kneel, lean, leap, spell, spill, and spoil" as similar words. I looked up each word in the dictionary(American Heritage) and two forms could, indeed, be said. I am from the US (California)and I say each of these in different ways.

I say:

learn - learned
burn - burned
dream - dreamt
kneel - knelt
lean - leaned
leap - leapt
spell - spelled
spill - spilled
spoil - spoiled

I find this very intriguing, since the way I say these might sound strange to some of you just like how, say "The milk spoilt" would sound strange to me. How do you guys say these words? And which do you speak, American or British English?


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Felixelus
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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237 posts - 244 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 2 of 15
02 December 2007 at 7:12am | IP Logged 
Well I speak British English and we do say learned but not for the past tense. It's pronounced Learn-Ed and it means someone who is educated. For the past tense I say learnt! For the rest of them I use both ways of saying them interchangably, apart from leaped. That sounds weird to me...
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FrozenNorth
Diglot
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United Kingdom
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37 posts - 37 votes
Speaks: English*, GermanB2
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 Message 3 of 15
02 December 2007 at 8:34am | IP Logged 
British Englush here.

I think it has a lot to do with the context of the sentence or where you 'learnt' English. Whilst I can use a few of the examples above in a sentence without it feeling 'weird' for the most part I often use -t over -ed.

It burned with ferocity
It burnt fiercely

I'm sitting here scratching my head now... Grammar has never been my strong point, even in my native tongue. Interesting point.
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William Camden
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United Kingdom
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 Message 4 of 15
02 December 2007 at 9:53am | IP Logged 
I speak and write British English, but I spent some of my early life among American English. I often use learned, burned etc. Perhaps it is that early US influence. I suspect also that American English TV and films infiltrate British English, and this is one of the signs.
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OrlMoth
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United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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77 posts - 83 votes 
2 sounds

 
 Message 5 of 15
02 December 2007 at 11:19am | IP Logged 
I use American English (my second language), but when I was learning English I turned to British music, tv and books for learning materials. I have been using learnt, burnt, and similar as long as I can remember.
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fanatic
Octoglot
Senior Member
Australia
speedmathematics.com
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1152 posts - 1817 votes 
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Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto

 
 Message 6 of 15
02 December 2007 at 5:12pm | IP Logged 
jes422 wrote:
Ever since I found this site, I have seen the past tense of "to learn" spelled "learned" and "learnt". I searched on yahoo and found this site http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutspelling/lea rnt?view=uk

If you don't want to go to the site, it says that "learnt" is British English and "learned" is American English. They also list "burn, dream, kneel, lean, leap, spell, spill, and spoil" as similar words. I looked up each word in the dictionary(American Heritage) and two forms could, indeed, be said. I am from the US (California)and I say each of these in different ways.

I say:

learn - learned
burn - burned
dream - dreamt
kneel - knelt
lean - leaned
leap - leapt
spell - spelled
spill - spilled
spoil - spoiled

I find this very intriguing, since the way I say these might sound strange to some of you just like how, say "The milk spoilt" would sound strange to me. How do you guys say these words? And which do you speak, American or British English?



I would say learnt, burnt, dreamt, leapt, spelt, spilt (as in spilt milk).
For spoil I would say spoiled if I were talking about a child who has been spoiled, but I would say the food has spoilt or the concert was spoilt by the unruly audience.

Sometimes it depends on the mood I am in as to which form I would use. I use both learned and learnt and burned and burnt. I think I would use learned and burned as simple past and learnt and burnt with an auxiliary verb. I might say I learned it (or learnt) but I would say the poem has been learnt. I would say, it burned but it has been burnt. There is no rule for this.

And I don't speak American or British English. I speak Australian English.

Edited by fanatic on 02 December 2007 at 5:32pm

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jody
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5997 days ago

242 posts - 252 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Bulgarian

 
 Message 7 of 15
02 December 2007 at 8:06pm | IP Logged 
FrozenNorth wrote:
British Englush here.

I think it has a lot to do with the context of the sentence or where you 'learnt' English. Whilst I can use a few of the examples above in a sentence without it feeling 'weird' for the most part I often use -t over -ed.

It burned with ferocity
It burnt fiercely

I'm sitting here scratching my head now... Grammar has never been my strong point, even in my native tongue. Interesting point.


American English here. I would say almost always "-ed". Rarely, if evet, the "-t" form. And I can say I never said "whilst." That must be British!

Edited by jody on 02 December 2007 at 8:07pm

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Volte
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Switzerland
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4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 8 of 15
02 December 2007 at 8:33pm | IP Logged 
jody wrote:

American English here. I would say almost always "-ed". Rarely, if evet, the "-t" form. And I can say I never said "whilst." That must be British!


I use 'whilst', but I only started using it after spending large amounts of time with speakers of British English. I almost always use the -ed form for the past. (I speak, or once spoke, Canadian English).




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