The verb “learn” has two past tense forms, which are learned and learnt. Both are used to describe the past action of acquiring knowledge or skill, but they have regional preferences and subtle differences in usage.
- Learned: This form is more common in American English, and it is used in both the simple past tense and the past participle. For example:
- “She learned how to speak French when she was a child.”
- “I had learned about the topic before the meeting.” In this usage, learned is consistent with regular past tense verbs that form the past by adding “-ed.”
- Learnt: This form is primarily used in British English and tends to be more common in informal speech or writing. It is also used as the past tense and past participle. For example:
- “He learnt a lot from his travels.”
- “They had learnt the lesson by the end of the seminar.”
While both forms are grammatically correct, the distinction is mostly regional. In formal contexts, learned might be preferred in both American and British English, especially when used as a past participle (e.g., “a learned scholar”). However, for everyday past tense use, learned is more frequently used in the U.S., while learnt holds more prominence in the U.K.