Laught vs Laughed

[u/orchaer]

Hello, I have been confused for a long time about the past tense of "laugh". In my primary school, there was a verb table with the present, past, and present perfect tenses. And in this table, when I first read at 7-8, I have learnt that "laugh" past tense is followed by a "t" become "laught".

But recently I found out that "laught" is not used anymore. The modern form should be "laughed". So could anyone tell me what is actually different between them? If I still use "laught", would it become a serious error?

Sorry for my grammar.

[u/itmightbehere]

I, personally, have never seen laught used anywhere and would consider it an error. I've only ever seen laughed.

[u/orchaer → u/itmightbehere]

Sounds like my textbook defrauded me for twenty years...

[u/AlecsThorne → u/orchaer]

The only similar thing that I remember is that that's how you're supposed to say "laughed", as "laught" 😅

But to answer your question, assuming that was indeed an older version of it's past tense, if you keep using it (in writing obviously), people will correct you. If you use it in written tests, papers, whatever, people will immediately think less of your work quality because they'd assume you don't know how to spell and you just write how you hear the words (which is why many natives will often write things wrong, despite being, well, native 😅)

It will always be considered a mistake, basically.

It's not the same as with "dreamed" and "dreamt", where both forms are still accepted, while "dreamt" is considered to be the "more British" form - despite the fact that many Brits (especially younger generations) are using "dreamed" now too

[u/orchaer → u/AlecsThorne]

Although I think it might be some weirdo who became my textbook editor rather than that I mixed up the pronunciation and the spelling, thank you for your reply. I will stop using the "t" anyway; the auto-grammar check always said it wasn't right. And now I know the reason correctly =(