Talk:Who's the richest entertainer in Australia? The Wiggles of course!

I spell checked and corrected earnt one time, and now it comes back two times? Heh! Earnt ain't a woid. Not even in the 1913 Websters! The past tense of the verb to earn is EARNED. ROFL!! --HiFlyer 17:26, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Alan, the usage of the word "earnt" is an interesting question.

According to The Oxford Guide to English Usage, "A number of verbs vary in their past tense and past participle between a regular form and a form with -t":

• burn — burnt
• dream — dreamt
• kneel — knelt
• leap — leapt
• learn — learnt
• smell — smelt
• spell — spelt
• spoil — spoilt

However, for "earnt" Oxford notes, "Earn is regular. There is no form earnt."

A subscription to the online Oxford dictionary goes for $275 a year, so I searched for "perfect passive participles" in Google to find this excerpt from the Oxford reference.

Despite Oxford's statement, and the omission of the word "earnt" from more than 900 online dictionary sources (I often use these to verify alternative British spellings), Google displays 67,000 usages of the word "earnt" online, so "earnt" appears to be a form of popular British slang.

Perhaps a reader with access to other authoritative reference works can better explain the usage of "earnt". — DV 18:58, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Pardon me whilst I sneeze. aChew! lol -edw 19:10, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I just checked the full OED on the usage of "earn". I can't find any reference there to "earnt". Indeed, as early as 1687 the form "earned" was being used. Though that doesn't preclude modern, regional usage. -- IlyaHaykinson 20:13, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Does Wikinews prefer the slang usage, even if it is hardly used at all?

--HiFlyer 20:43, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

OK, Simeon changed it back to "earned". I'm glad someone knew what to do! — DV 04:32, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Correction

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Changing w:High five (disambiguation) to w:Hi-5 (Australian group). SatDis (talk) 02:02, 16 January 2024 (UTC)