language usage question for members from UK

[milagros317]

On the back of a bottle of a very good Australian wine, the winemaker had a description of his career and methods. He said his "experience was earnt."

In the US we would say "earned." Is "earnt" an Australian usage, or do you say it that way in the UK? If the latter, is "earned" also used?

 

[SuperAnn]

"Earnt" is wrong, but a generally accepted alternative to earned used in common language.

But yeah, the correct word is "earned" and "earnt" is just lazy phonetics.

 

[milagros317]

Thanks for your reply, SuperAnn, and congratulations on delurking and making your first post!😀 I lurked for about 6 months before I even registered.

The winemaker was perhaps making a point of showing his working class backgroud by using "earnt," then.

I have always found differences in usage among the English speaking countries to be interesting.