Dreamed vs Dreamt
Dream is a common English word that is known to all of us, and we also know that the past participle of dream is dreamt which is the word that is also a simple past tense of the word dream. So, if a patient goes to a psychiatrist and tells him about a dream that he saw a day ago, he would say that he dreamt about so and so. There is another word dreamed that is more common in American English and is used in place of dreamt. This, however, confuses nonnatives as they cannot make out the differences between dreamed and dreamt. Let us find out if indeed there are any differences between the two words dreamt and dreamed or is it just a case of different usage?
Dreamed
Dreamed is a past tense form of dream which is more common in American English than British English. This is just like learned, which is the past tense of learn and used more in US than UK where the word learnt is preferred. In fact, adding –ed to a verb to make a past tense of the verb is very common in English language. So jump becomes jumped, and spill becomes spilled. The verbs that take the form of –ed are called regular verbs. If you are excited about a dream you saw and discussing it with a friend, you would of course say that you dreamed about winning a lottery.
Dreamt
The past tense of dream in British English is dreamt and not dreamed. There are also writers who make use of the word dreamt to denote a sense of the word that is more figurative than literal. These are people who believe that dreamt is a better option than dreamed that looks dull for a wonderful mental activity such as a dream. These are also writers who are more likely to use burnt in place of burned and spelt in place of spelled.
What is the difference between Dreamed and Dreamt?
• Dreamed and dreamt are two forms of the past tense of dream, and there is no difference between the two.
• Dreamed is preferred more by American people while dreamt is commonly used more by British authors.
• Writers choose dreamt or dreamed depending upon their style of writing.