Peculiar Pasts
Monday, July 21st, 2003 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthI've enquired elsewhere about this issue, but the answers are so wildly disparate that I'm beginning to think the question is more complex than it seems!
'Dreamed' and 'dreamt' are both valid past & past participle forms of the verb 'to dream' (according to Fowler and the OED, anyway). The '-t' form, however, seems to be much less widely accepted, and I'm told that it's more or less obsolete in American English.
Also applies to smelled/smelt, burned/burnt, learned/learnt ...
Question: Can anyone explain the difference between the '-ed' and '-t' forms?
'Dreamed' and 'dreamt' are both valid past & past participle forms of the verb 'to dream' (according to Fowler and the OED, anyway). The '-t' form, however, seems to be much less widely accepted, and I'm told that it's more or less obsolete in American English.
Also applies to smelled/smelt, burned/burnt, learned/learnt ...
Question: Can anyone explain the difference between the '-ed' and '-t' forms?
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Date: Monday, July 21st, 2003 03:07 am (UTC)