Learned or Learnt - What’s the Difference? 

Learned or Learnt are the past tense and past participle form of the verb learn. The spelling variation is based on American English or British English.

• learnt is the correct spelling in British English
• learned is the correct spelling in American English (and for Canada, too)

Both you learned something and you learnt something mean the same thing, the act of discovering, acquiring, or remembering something or information. The only distinction is that the spelling and pronunciation of this word mean something about what part of the world you hail from. Learnt and learned are both past participles and past tenses of the word to learn. The generally accepted spelling in the United States and Canada is learned, although the other parts of the English-speaking world appear to favour learnt at the moment.

Why for now? The American English tendency toward making irregular verbs into regular ones has started influencing British English, which is why the -ed variant is being used increasingly around the world. Soon, learned might be the most common form everywhere.

Examples of learned and learnt

Here are some examples of learned and learnt from around the world:

“Ackerman has learned from user feedback that many of his listeners fall asleep during the twenty-minute introduction, and I’m usually one of them.” —The New Yorker

“CBC News has also learned a number of Conservative MPs will be called to testify by the Crown.” —CBC

“But, sometimes, these ‘agents’ learn to override this, they say, giving an example of a 2013 AI taught to play Tetris that learnt to pause a game forever to avoid losing.” —BBC.

The exception: When learned is the only option

No matter where you live, sometimes learned is the only correct form to use—it’s when you’re writing the adjective learned. Next, you can not say learnt and have to pronounce the word in two syllables, LER-ned. You can use this adjective when you wish to tell that someone is knowledgeable or very educated:

• “The girl with the very ordinary education became, in the words of her daughter, Sue, a ‘very learned’ woman.” 

—The Sydney Morning Herald

• “You’re welcome / Most learned reverend sir, into our kingdom: / Use us and it.” 

—William Shakespeare, Henry VIII

In American English, learned is the prevalent past tense form of learn. In other varieties of English, learnt is dominant. Because of the strong influence of American English, learned is increasing in popularity. Do you think that learnt will disappear completely one day?