Question

What is the past tense for the word “Learn”? (Learnt or Learned)

Answer 1

Hint: A verb's tense is generally determined by when the event occurred. The below are the three major tenses:
1. Past Tense - The past tense is a verb tense that refers to a previous case or situation of being.
2. Present Tense - The present is a verb tense that refers to a current case or situation of being.
3. Future Tense - The future tense is a verb tense that refers to an upcoming/future case or situation of being.

Complete answer:
Let’s discuss past tense in detail:
1. Simple past tense: We add -ed to the infinitive form of the verb for regular verbs. (She played)
2. Past continuous tense: Form - was/were + verb + ing. (She was playing)
3. Past perfect tense: Form - had + past participle. (She had played)
4. Past perfect continuous tense: From - had + been + verb + ing. (I had been working since afternoon)

Here, the past tense for the word “learn” can be learnt as well as learned. It is generally differentiated while you are using American-English or British-English. You're talking about the same thing when you think you learned something or you learnt something—the method of discovering, gaining, or preserving knowledge or intelligence. The only distinction is that how you spell it reveals something of your heritage. For instance, “These are the three lessons that should be learnt from the economic crisis, he added”. “It's something we've learned in the past”.

Thus we can say both the forms are acceptable, but learned is often used in both British English and American English, while learnt is much more common in British English than in American English.

Note: Remember that when you are writing an adjective, you need to use “learned” rather than “learnt'', for instance, “he is a very learned and revered man.” Here the word “learned” is used as a quality (adjective) for a person, therefore, “learnt” can’t be used here.