for past tenses, do you use "t" or "ed?"?

Question

example: "burnt" vs "burned"

which is used more? t or ed?

Answer 1

There are actually only a handful of English verbs that form (or may form) the past tense by adding -t at the end or replacing a final -d of the root verb with -t.

Some of them ALWAYS use t. never -ed -- in all English dialects:

kept, slept, crept, meant, knelt, spent, bent, built ['builded' is an older form, rarely used now]

Others may take EITHER form for the past tense -

burned/burnt
dreamed/dreamt
leaned/leant
leaped/leapt
lighted/lit
spelled/spelt
spilled/spilt

Some English dialects use both of these forms, but it is more typical for British dialects to use -t, American ones to use -ed.

Also, as has been noted, dialects that use the -ed form for the past tense often use the -t form when using the form adjectivally.

Many of these, and other irregular past forms are found here (not necessarily complete!)
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/verbs.htm

Answer 2

Speakers will disagree on this. Some prefer one as the past tense verb and the other as the adjective. Some may even use them interchangeably when speaking, but generally spell them only one way.

Secondly, in the U.S., using the "t" is rarer than in the U.K. Can someone in the U.K. speak to whether this is universal? I have another bit of evidence:

I've never seen or heard "learnt" from an American, but I hear it frequently enough on BBC radio and spelled that way in texts by British writers.

Don't know about Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.

Answer 3

This depends on the words you use. Here, the past tense form of `burn' is burned. `Burnt' is the past participle of burn. There are words with which we add `ed' or `t' to get their past tense.
Eg: send - sent ; bend - bent.; lend - lent
For some words ending in `t' we do not change for past tense.
Eg: cut - cut, put - put etc.

Once we become familiar with these words the usage comes automatically.

Answer 4

You can not generalise the rules for all past tenses of all words.You have to learn and remember.

But in your example BURN, the BURNT is used mostly as an adjective....''a half burnt book''.

But while used as verb,Both BURNT AND BURNED are agreed to be correct.

THIS IS NOT A GENERAL RULE.

Answer 5

I tend to use "t" rather than "ed".
I live in Britain and I find that "t" is the more English way of saying it, whereas the language has been adapted in America and that's why "ed" is more common there.
Hope that helps! :)

Answer 6

burnt is not the past tense of the word burn.....burnt is an adjective used to describe a noun.

The past tense of most verbs is spelled by adding ed...except for the irregular verbs.

Answer 7

Both T and Ed. It depends upon the type of phrase you use.

SO T Ed

Answer 8

SEE BURNT IS AN ADJECTIVE AND NOT THE PAST TENSE OF THE WORD 'BURN'. WE MOSTLY USE 'ED' FOR PAST TENSES. I THINK IT IS NOT APPLICABLE FOR IRREGULAR VERBS.

Answer 9

Burned is the past tense of burn. Burnt is an adjective describing the thing you burned, for example, burnt toast.

I burned the toast.
So now I have burnt toast.

Answer 10

ed