Alanna Madden
January 16, 2021
Grammar Tips
Dreamed and dreamt are both past tense forms of the verb dream. The main difference is that “dreamt” is irregular and slightly more relevant for British English.
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Dreamed and dreamt are both past tense forms of the verb dream. The main difference between the two is that “dreamt” is the irregular past tense form, while “dreamed” is the regular past tense form.
Regular verbs are verbs that follow predictable patterns for their past and present participle forms, such as by:
Examples of regular verbs include words like “love,” “gift,” and “kiss” because they follow standard verb patterns. For example:
| Verb | Third-person singular present tense | Third-person singular past tense | Past participle | Present participle |
| Love | Loves | Loved | Loved | Loving |
| Gift | Gifts | Gifted | Gifted | Gifting |
| Kiss | Kisses | Kissed | Kissed | Kissing |
Irregular verbs don’t follow a standard set of rules, and we generally have to memorize their verb forms. Let’s take a look at a few irregular verbs and their subsequent forms.
| Verb | Third-person singular present tense | Third-person singular past tense | Past participle | Present participle |
| Speak | Speaks | Spoke | Spoke | Speaking |
| Think | Thinks | Thought | Thought | Thinking |
| Feel | Feels | Felt | Felt | Feeling |
| Read | Reads | Read | Read | Reading |
Often, we encounter English terms that are regular and irregular, depending on where you live. The Word Counter covered similar instances for lessons such as “learnt vs. learned” or “while vs. whilst,” where the term ending with -t is generally favored by British English.
This isn’t the case for every word that ends with -t, as both British and American English uses “slept,” “crept,” “wept,” or “kept” as standard past participles. But when there is a preference of -t verbs between the United States and England, they typically involve terms like:
Among the long list of irregular -t verbs are “dreamed” and “dreamt,” where “dreamed” is the common form in the US and “dreamt” is slightly more likely to appear in England.
However, it’s important to know that verbs like “dreamt,” “smelt,” “burnt,” and “spoilt” are losing their popularity with British English every year. This is especially true for the verb “leant,” which is nearly obsolete compared to “learned.”
According to Google Books’ Ngram Viewer, American and British English has generally favored “dreamed” over “dreamt” since 1500. Sure, “dreamt” had a moment in English literature between 1635–1816, but it’s popularity has not reached the same levels as “dreamed” since then.
While “dreamed” is the dominant spelling for British and American English, you’re welcome to use dreamt to your heart’s desire. The only potential issue is that “dreamt” is less common than “dreamed,” so your audience might assume it’s a spelling error.
According to The New Oxford English Dictionary, the noun dream is a “series of thoughts, images, and sensations” that occur in one’s mind during sleep. However, we can also define a dream as a state of mindlessness (i.e., daydreams), a cherished aspiration or fantasy, or even “a person or thing perceived as wonderful or perfect” (“Dream” 527).
Sentence examples:
As a verb, the word “dream” describes the act of experiencing these sensations, feelings, or fantasies in one’s sleep or waking thoughts. In this case, English speakers use the following verb forms of dream:
Sentence examples:
Daydream, conceit, conceive, envision, fancy, fantasize, fantasy, feature, hallucinate, ideate, image, imagine, reflect, relive, ruminate, picture, plan, see, vision, visualize.
According to The American Heritage Dictionary, the word dream stems from Middle English drem and Old English drēam (‘joy’ and ‘music’).
“Dreamed” and “dreamt” have the same meaning, but how we use them in sentences is not always the same. While using the past participle of “dream,” it’s best to stick with the following contexts:
Published examples include:
Test how well you understand the difference between dreamed and dreamt with the following multiple-choice questions.
Answers
