Which is the correct word?

[BadgerBadger]

"there's something to be learned from (whatever)......."

or

"there's something to be learnt from (whatever)........"

TIA!

Pleeease! It's always irritated me (in a "one day I'll find that out" then promptly forget to find out, way).

Learnt is the past participle of learn. Learned is an adjective. Your first sentence is therefore incorrect as the word would only be applied to a noun.

Unless you're North American, in which case the past tense of "learn" is indeed "learned". Nobody says learnt in the US or Canada!

Trying to think of other examples... burnt vs. burned is the only one I can think of.

Thanks!

So the sentence

"There's something to be learnt from even an argument."

Would be correct?

I would say yes, but learned is an Americanism which has come into use in British English and I think would be deemed correct too.

I agree with lucy - both are now probably correct.

Many thanks!

learned

Another word with similar grey areas I can think of is earnt/earned

also leant/leaned (my dictionary says both are correct, but learnt/leant is esp British!)

One of dd's pellings this week was 'spelled'. She also had to put this word in a sentence. None sounded right - all the ones we could think of sounded as if the word should be spelt. Can anyone think of a correct sentence to use the word spelled?

Is learned an Americanism or is it the original English form that was exported to the US?

Maybe learned went over there originally then returned with a more general use (learned)?