Trouble With Tenses – Learned Or Learnt?

Many irregular verbs, like regular ones, have the same form for the past tense and past participle – often ending in -t (met, lent, slept, and so on) or -d (fed, heard, told, and so on).
Some verbs have alternative spellings and pronunciations for their past forms – a regular one, such as learned or spoiled, and an irregular one, such as learnt or spoilt. Other verbs of this sort are burn, dwell, kneel, lean, leap, smell, spell, and spill.
British speakers (and writers) tend to use the -t form, especially for the past participle, and especially for burnt, knelt, and leapt. And even if they write burned or learned or the like, they tend to use the -t pronunciation. North Americans tend in the opposite direction, both in spelling and pronunciation, especially for leaned, learned, spelled, spilled, and spoiled. However, they often speak and write of a spoilt child and spilt milk, and readily use dwelt, knelt, and leapt.
A subtle distinction in meaning sometimes seems to differentiate the -t form from the -ed form. The -ed form perhaps emphasises the duration of the action: We burnt the letters last night and I dreamt about her last night on the one hand; The fires burned all night and I dreamed about her all night on the other.
None of the alternatives is wrong, in any usage, in any dialect. You should, however, try to be consistent in your spelling.
For Scientific english editing and Medical Writing Services visitwww.manuscriptedit.com