# Learnt or Learned **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 22, 2021, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705 "2021-05-22T20:05:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2021, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/21 "2021-05-23T02:12:01Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > unless spoken by a hillbilly Hillbillies like Samuel Coleridge 🙂 > [@](#): > > It is among the advantages of these events that they learn us to associate a keen and deep feeling with all the old good phrases, all the reverend sayings of comfort and sympathy, that belong, as it were, to the whole human race. > [@](#): > > Poor Ass! thy master should have learnt to show > Pity best taught by fellowship of Woe! ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2021, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/22 "2021-05-23T02:24:08Z")
As I think about it, “learnt” doesn’t sound hillbilly to my ears, but “larn” and “larned” does, as in, “I don’t need no fancy book larnin’ to know how to talk!” Also, “larn” as a substitute for “teach,” as in, “I’ll larn you how to talk proper.” ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2021, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/23 "2021-05-23T21:44:11Z")
You need a “both” option. They’re both completely normal in England, and not just for upper-class people either. Dreamt is also normal here (same as dreamed), not some sort of weird hyper-correction. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2021, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/24 "2021-05-23T23:54:49Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > I reckon I would’ve learnt him how to tie his own shoes but he ain’t got none.” So if we get rid of “learnt” you think this sentence is okay? _I reckon I would’ve learned him how to tie his own shoes but he ain’t got none._ It’s just the word “learnt” that you’re objecting to? [Mods: I assume it’s okay to change the wording of a sentence _outside_ the quote box for discussion, as long as I don’t touch the original version in the quote box?] ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/25 "2021-05-24T00:03:55Z")
It’s weird you should say that because “learnt” to me sounds a bit more posh and upper-crusty, not lacking in education or social status. That, plus, the whole “XXX isn’t even a real word” is pretty much always an incorrect statement. (Especially so in this case – if you’re very well-read, you’ve surely come across it. Just for fun, I did a quick search of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and it shows up 14 times. I was an English lit major, so “learnt” doesn’t even ping my radar as being odd in any way.) ---
**Author:** ![Madam\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madam_librarian/32/3123_2.png) [@Madam\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madam_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/26 "2021-05-24T00:19:15Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > but “larn” and “larned” does, as in, “I don’t need no fancy book larnin’ to know how to talk!” This, to me, seems more of pronunciation issue, much like the pronunciation of “earl” is used by some to describe what is otherwise known as black gold or Texas tea. Oil, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/27 "2021-05-24T00:25:53Z")
My position stands, and your reply is an excellent example of what I was talking about. Keep using it! ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/28 "2021-05-24T00:27:33Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > My position stands, and your reply is an excellent example of what I was talking about. Keep using it!. What are you talking about? ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/29 "2021-05-24T00:33:35Z")
UK tends to be ‘nt’; American tends to be ‘ed’ ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/30 "2021-05-24T00:35:40Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > My position stands, and your reply is an excellent example of what I was talking about. Keep using it! So you still believe that learnt doesn’t even exist as a word, despite being given dictionary cites for it? Here are some recent uses of learnt on the BBC, for evidence in case anyone thinks the term is outdated or only used by the upper classes, or, conversely, only used by those with no education: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=Learnt&page=1](https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=Learnt&page=1) It’s really just an ordinary word here. Plenty of words from one dialect don’t turn up much in other dialects. They’re still real words. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/31 "2021-05-24T00:36:38Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > My position stands, and your reply is an excellent example of what I was talking about. Wow, that is an impressive bit of doubling down, given that @Northern_Piper was responding to your declaration of: > [@](#): > > Learnt isn’t even a word. If you want to show your lack of education or social status, go ahead and keep using it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/32 "2021-05-24T01:10:07Z")
Fun fact: In Hebrew, adding the “t” sound to the end of a verb is one of the perfectly standard regular forms for the past tense, specifically for the second-person singular feminine past tense. Example: “wrote” → “katav” (pronounced kaTAV). “(you feminine singular) wrote” → “katavt” ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/33 "2021-05-24T02:05:03Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > It’s just the word “learnt” that you’re objecting to? I am not objecting to learnt at all. It’s a perfectly cromulent word. It’s just not used very much, if at all, around here. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/34 "2021-05-24T02:28:02Z")
> [@ALOHA\_HATER](#): > > It feels like a silly overcorrection by someone who believes that “dreamt” is correct over “dreamed.” _There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…_ > [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Learnt isn’t even a word. If you want to show your lack of education or social status, go ahead and keep using it. _Like a strange tongue, wherein, to gain the language,_ _'Tis needful that the most immodest word_ _Be look’d upon and learnt…_ ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2021, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705/35 "2021-05-24T03:03:30Z")
I have to admit it sounds very hillbilly to me, too. It seems that those dialects are more likely to have preserved some aspects from UK English. And I hear a lot more hillbillies than I do Brits, due to where I live. Though, in my brain, that R is very hard. I can’t really hear the British version which would be non-rhotic. Anyone have a clip? It might spark memories of hearing “learnt” on British TV. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/learnt-or-learned/942705.md?page=1)