Learned and learnt are both correct as the past tense and past participle of learn: I learned it and I learnt it mean the same thing, and both are said in one syllable. Learned is the standard form in American English and is common in British English too; learnt is mainly British. The adjective in a learned scholar is a different word: it is always spelled learned and said in two syllables, LUR-nid. The memory trick: if your document spells color without a u, spell the past tense learned.
So the choice matters mainly in British English, and there it is a matter of style, not correctness. What does look like a mistake, in any variety, is a draft that says learnt on page 4 and learned on page 40.
Learnt vs learned at a glance
| Use | American English | British English | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| UsePast tense | American Englishlearned | British Englishlearned or learnt | ExampleShe learned to drive at forty. |
| UsePast participle | American Englishlearned | British Englishlearned or learnt | ExampleI have learned my lesson. |
| UseAdjective: acquired, not inborn | American Englishlearned (one syllable) | British Englishlearned (one syllable) | Examplea learned skill, learned behavior |
| UseAdjective: scholarly | American Englishlearned (two syllables, LUR-nid) | British Englishlearned (two syllables) | Examplea learned professor |
| UseOther forms | American Englishlearn, learns, learning | British Englishlearn, learns, learning | ExampleHe learns fast. |
Is learnt correct in American English?
It isn't an error, but it isn't American usage either. The main entry for learn in Merriam-Webster, the dictionary Chicago style follows, gives learned as the past tense and past participle, with no separate learnt. The Oxford Learner's Dictionaries mark learnt as “especially British English.” An editor working to an American house style is likely to change it.
In new American writing, learnt reads as British. One exception is worth keeping: when you quote a British source or cite a British title that uses learnt, leave its spelling as published unless your house style says otherwise.
Learnt and learned in British English
Both forms are standard in Britain. Learnt is the one Americans think of as British, but learned is common in British writing as well. It isn't the American spelling so much as the shared one. That makes the British choice a house-style decision: a publisher, a newspaper or a university may have made it already, and if nobody has, you make it once and keep it.
Both spellings were already in print in the nineteenth century, on both sides of the Atlantic. Jane Austen wrote learnt:
Catherine and Lydia had been fortunate enough to be never without partners, which was all that they had yet learnt to care for at a ball.
Four decades later, Henry David Thoreau wrote learned:
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Neither writer was making a point. Each was using the ordinary form of their time and place, which is all a modern writer has to do too.
The adjective learned: two syllables
The adjective that means having or showing deep knowledge is spelled learned in every variety of English and pronounced in two syllables: LUR-nid, /ˈlɜːnɪd/. There is no learnt version of it. You'll meet it in a learned professor and a learned journal, in a learned society such as an academy of sciences, in the old phrase the learned professions (traditionally divinity, law and medicine), and in English courtrooms, where a barrister refers to opposing counsel as my learned friend.
The word began as the past participle of learn in its old sense of teach: a learned person was, originally, a taught one. It has been in English since the 14th century. Poets sometimes print it learnèd, with a grave accent, to show that the -ed is a syllable of its own. Walt Whitman used the scholarly sense, with the old apostrophe spelling, in a poem first published in Drum-Taps (1865):
When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
A second adjective, said in one syllable, means acquired rather than inborn: a learned skill, learned behavior, a learned response. Psychology's learned helplessness, the habit of giving up after repeated experience of having no control, uses this sense. Only the context tells a reader which pronunciation you mean, so if a sentence could go either way, rewrite it: a scholarly response or a response she had learned.
Burnt, spelt and other -t verbs
Learn belongs to a small family of verbs whose past forms can end in -ed or -t. British English uses both endings freely. American English mostly uses -ed, though Merriam-Webster lists some -t forms, such as burnt, dreamt, knelt and leapt, as standard alongside the -ed ones.
| Verb | -ed form | -t form | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verbburn | -ed formburned | -t formburnt | What to knowMerriam-Webster lists both as equals; burnt is common as an adjective: burnt toast, burnt sienna |
| Verbdream | -ed formdreamed | -t formdreamt | What to knowMerriam-Webster lists both as equals |
| Verbdwell | -ed formdwelled | -t formdwelt | What to knowMerriam-Webster lists both |
| Verbkneel | -ed formkneeled | -t formknelt | What to knowMerriam-Webster lists knelt first, with kneeled as an equal variant |
| Verblean | -ed formleaned | -t formleant | What to knowMerriam-Webster marks the -t form chiefly British |
| Verbleap | -ed formleaped | -t formleapt | What to knowMerriam-Webster lists both as equals |
| Verblearn | -ed formlearned | -t formlearnt | What to knowLearnt is mainly British |
| Verbsmell | -ed formsmelled | -t formsmelt | What to knowMerriam-Webster marks smelt chiefly British; smelt is also a small fish and a verb for refining ore |
| Verbspell | -ed formspelled | -t formspelt | What to knowAmerican English uses spelled; spelt is also a kind of wheat |
| Verbspoil | -ed formspoiled | -t formspoilt | What to knowMerriam-Webster labels spoilt chiefly British |
When you choose, choose for the whole family. A British manuscript that says learnt, dreamed and spelt hasn't made a mistake, but a careful copy editor may ask whether it meant to, and the answer should be on the style sheet.
When learn means teach
“That'll learn you” uses learn to mean teach. Merriam-Webster notes that this use dates from the 13th century and was standard until at least the early 19th; today it labels it nonstandard. It survives in casual speech, which makes it useful in dialogue and nowhere else.
“Who learned you to tie a bowline like that?” Granddad asked. I said nobody had, I'd learned it from a video, and he looked at me as if I'd said I learned it from the moon.
The first learned is Granddad's voice. The second is the narrator's ordinary standard English, and the contrast between them does the characterization without a word of description.
Examples of learned and learnt
American English (learned):
- She learned Portuguese in eight months before the Lisbon posting.
- We learned the hard way to back up the drafts folder.
- Have you learned your lines for Thursday?
- The committee learned of the error only after the report went out.
- I learned more from the rejection letter than from the contract.
- The lessons learned from the 2019 launch are in the appendix.
British English (learnt or learned):
- She learnt Portuguese in eight months before the Lisbon posting.
- He has learnt to keep his opinions to himself in meetings.
- The children learnt the poem by heart for the end-of-term concert.
- I learnt to drive in a car with no power steering.
- What we learnt from the pilot shaped the final design.
- She learned the cello first and the piano later. (Equally correct in British English.)
The adjectives (learned everywhere):
- The book was reviewed in a learned journal and nowhere else. (LUR-nid)
- My learned friend has misread the contract. (LUR-nid)
- Fear of dogs is often a learned response. (one syllable)
- Typing fast is a learned skill, not a talent. (one syllable)
- She is the most learned person I know on medieval maps. (LUR-nid)
- He wore his learning lightly, but he was a deeply learned man. (LUR-nid)
- Learned behavior can be unlearned, slowly. (one syllable)
- The learned professions were once divinity, law and medicine. (LUR-nid)
Mistakes editors will flag
| Instead of | Write | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Instead ofShe learnt French at school. (American copy) | WriteShe learned French at school. | WhyLearnt is mainly British |
| Instead ofa learnt professor | Writea learned professor | WhyThe scholarly adjective is always learned |
| Instead ofI earnt every penny. | WriteI earned every penny. | WhyEarn has no -t form |
| Instead oflearnt on page 3, learned on page 30 | WriteOne form throughout | WhyMixing them looks like an oversight |
| Instead ofShe learned me to swim. | WriteShe taught me to swim. | WhyLearn for teach is nonstandard outside dialogue |
| Instead oflessons learnt (American report) | Writelessons learned | WhyAmerican English uses -ed |
| Instead ofburnt, dreamed, spelt and leaned in one British text | WriteAll -t or all -ed | WhyNot wrong, but it looks unplanned |
Quick quiz: learnt or learned?
Fill each gap. Where both forms are right, say so.
- (American English) By the end of the summer, Josh had ____ to swim.
- (British English) By the end of the summer, Josh had ____ to swim.
- (Any variety) The judge was a ____ woman with a dry wit.
- (Any variety) Shyness can be partly a ____ response.
- (American English) What have we ____ from this?
- (British English, house style: -ed forms) The team ____ the new system in a week.
- (Any variety) She has published in every ____ journal in her field.
- (British English, house style: -t forms) He ____ the hard way.
- learned: American English
- learnt or learned: both are standard in British English
- learned, said LUR-nid: the scholarly adjective
- learned, one syllable: acquired, not inborn
- learned: American English
- learned: the house style decides
- learned, said LUR-nid: the scholarly adjective
- learnt: the house style decides
Keep one spelling across a manuscript
A British novel bought by an American publisher, a thesis written in Edinburgh and examined in Boston, a report pasted together from three offices: these are the drafts where learnt and learned end up side by side. Ask the Strokes Assistant to review the manuscript and list every learnt and learned, plus the other -t verbs in the table above, with the sentence each one appears in. Then decide which ones a quotation or a British character's letter should keep.
Other spellings with two right answers: judgement and judgment and ingrained and engrained. For a pair where one spelling is simply wrong, see principal vs principle.
Frequently asked questions
Is learnt a real word?
Yes. Learnt is a standard past tense and past participle of learn in British English, listed in British dictionaries alongside learned. It is rare in American English, where learned is the standard form, so American editors usually change it. Both are one syllable; learnt simply ends in a t sound.
How do you pronounce learned?
As a verb, learned has one syllable, /lɜːnd/, and so does the adjective meaning acquired, as in learned behavior. The adjective meaning scholarly has two syllables, LUR-nid, /ˈlɜːnɪd/: a learned professor, my learned friend. Learnt, the British past form, has one syllable and ends with a t sound.
Is it lessons learned or lessons learnt?
In American English, lessons learned. In British English both appear in reports and reviews, so follow your organization's house style, or choose one and keep it. Use the same form in the heading of a lessons-learned report as in its text, and match it to how the rest of the document spells the past tense of learn.
Is it burned or burnt?
Both are correct. American dictionaries list burned and burnt as equal past forms, and burnt is common as an adjective in both varieties: burnt toast, burnt sienna. British English uses both forms for the verb, and a British text should treat the other -t verbs, such as learnt, spelt and dreamt, the same way.
