Re: Fahrenheit BS

On Tue, 9 May 2006 10:50:23 -0700 (PDT), brian@xxxxxxx (Brian Tung)
wrote:

"Learnt" is a UK-ism. People who learn British-style English will be
more likely to spell it that way. It certainly isn't wrong--yet. :)

Even in England, the usage is variable. My wife (born in London,
schooled in Bristol) uses "learned", and finds the spelling "learnt" odd
looking. The OED gives the past tense and past participle for "learn" as
"learned, learnt". The order of alternates in the OED doesn't reflect
preference, but does reflect what is most common. I guess that "learnt"
in on its way out (although that pronunciation is common even in the
U.S.)

There are a number of irregular verbs with similar alternate past
tenses- burn, dream, leap, spell, etc).

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
.

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