English is a tricky language – it has so many variants spoken all over the world that one is almost always in doubt about the usage of certain words or phrases. The Past Participle and Past Tense of the verb to learn is yet another example.

To  learn means to acquire knowledge of, or skill in, something through study or experience. It has both – a regular form and an irregular form, which we will discuss here.

First things first – both learned and learnt are correct. When to use which one depends on the country you are in. Learned is the generally preferred form in the United States and Canada whereas other English-speaking countries (those which follow British English) use learnt.

Examples:

• She learned the table quickly.
• Rita learnt classical dance in school.

Exception:

At times, learned is the only option – when you use it as an adjective. In such cases, you cannot use learnt.

Pronunciation: emphasis on the last two syllables -ED (as in said).

Example:

• My neighbour is a very learned
• He seemed to be a learned

Some other verbs with regular and irregular forms:

Verb	Past Simple	Past Perfect
Dream	dreamed/dreamt	Dream/dreamt
Hang	hung/hanged	hung/hanged
Burn	burned/burnt	burned/burnt
Smell	Smelled/smelt	Smelled/smelt
Spell	Spelled/spelt	Spelled/spelt

 

As in the case of learnt, the second form (e.g. spelt, dreamt) is more common in British English.