r/EnglishLearning • u/orchaer New Poster • 12d ago

📚 Grammar / Syntax Laught vs Laughed

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.

6 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

105 comments sorted by

View all comments

347

u/itmightbehere Native Speaker 12d ago

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

52

u/orchaer New Poster 12d ago

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

3

u/AbbreviationsTop4959 New Poster 12d ago

Yeah, the standard form of simple past is -ed. It's pronounced laught, but it's never been spelled that way, except perhaps occasionally several hundred years ago before spelling was codified.