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Being an Australian I am accustomed to -t past tenses like learnt and spelt, so naturally I would write and say "earnt". However, when I wrote "earnt" in an email, Outlook underlined it as a misspelt word.

I did some further research and discovered that in all English dialects "earned" is used instead of "earnt". Why is this the case, and for how long has it been?

As mentioned in a similar question on this site, Wiktionary is the only online dictionary with an entry for "earnt".

NOTE: I checked for this same question on this site, but it only had what I already knew (the validity of the word). I would like to know why "earnt" is not a word.

Dog Lover
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  • Do understand that, even if "earnt" were considered a valid word, that's no guarantee that a spell checker would not flag it. – Hot Licks May 25 '15 at 12:40
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    In modern-day usage the only accepted spelling is earned in all forms of English, even if you say it as "earnt". For Americans, accustomed to learned, smelled and dreamed as their only options, this little conumdrum is never a problem. (Continued..) –  May 25 '15 at 12:46
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    ... (from above) There is conflicting advice on the origin of 'earnt'. Some internet sources state that it is an archaic (out of date/use) form of earned. They will point out that Charles Dickens used it in 1884, yet unlike learnt, dreamt and smelt, 'earnt' does not feature in the OED as a variant. A google search (March 2009) reveals 14,100,000 instances of earnt, but the British National Corpus (1980--1993), which has 100 million words, contains only eight instances of earnt. http://www.whichenglish.com/Better-English-Grammar/usage/earnt-or-earned.html –  May 25 '15 at 12:46
  • @DogLover 'Why' is always a difficult question to answer. It's much easier to describe the phenomenon (both what happens now and the history of what has happened) than it is to determine the causes. The past tense of 'earn' seems to match the same pattern as 'learnt'. But if everybody says 'learnt' but 'earned' then that's what people do. – Mitch May 25 '15 at 12:50
  • If to earn were an irregular verb dictionaries would show the irregular verb forms of past tense and the past participle. But to earn is a regular verb. – rogermue May 25 '15 at 13:01
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    There's some useful discussion of the usage here in a Wiktionary talk page, where after due consideration they seem to have accepted that the spoken /t/ version is sufficiently widespread that it should be recognised as an acceptable variant. And the written version should more properly be classified as *non-standard* (as opposed to "incorrect"). – FumbleFingers May 25 '15 at 13:06
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    Treating Microsoft products as sources for English language only hastens the Apocalypse, please don't. Spellcheckers are tools for those who can already spell, but who mis-type. Never have them on automatic replacement, or Bad Things Will Happen. – David Pugh May 25 '15 at 14:22
  • It sounds like earnt is becoming established in Australia. In which case, you're probably out of luck, because while Microsoft accommodates American and British English—treating Americanism such as dove and snuck as valid past tenses—I expect it doesn't pay any attention to Strine. – Peter Shor May 25 '15 at 15:24
  • @rogermue: have you looked in Australian dictionaries? English dialects vary, and most dictionaries don't include Australian English. – Peter Shor May 25 '15 at 15:27
  • Yes, just now. Oxford's Australian National Dictionary says : No entry for "earn". So I take it that there is no special Australian variant. – rogermue May 25 '15 at 15:35

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Short answer: It is.

The OED does have it as a (regional and nonstandard) form since the 1800's, and the earliest citation is 1748 G. G. Beekman Let. 7 June in Beekman Mercantile Papers (1956) I. 47:

I have Earnt allmost so much as the amount of the bill.

However it is not, and has never been, in popular written use. Using Google Ngram to query the English corpus, the market share of earnt v earned has widened since 1700.

The Australian corpus only shows 4 results, containing earnt. 185 for earned.

Remember that dictionaries are post facto. If you want it in, you have to use it.

Rasmus
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  • Thank you for the answer. Do you have a suggestion as to why "earnt" isn't standard, considering that "learnt", etc. is? – Dog Lover May 26 '15 at 00:41
  • Irregular verbs are shown in lists of irregular verbs. To burn is irregular, but can be used as a regular verb. To turn is regular. So not all verbs that sound alike are irregular. So you can't go by the sound or similarity, you have to check the list of irregular verbs or check the dictionary entry of a special verb. – rogermue May 26 '15 at 09:34