Which Would Be The Correct Word To Use?

[Barsel]

In this sentence would it be correct to say' Jack dreamed he was a pilot.' or Jack dreamt he was a pilot?

[jennyjoan]

I like "dreamt"

[bednobs]

either

[-SharonA-]

Dreamt.

[Calibax]

Fowler's says both are acceptable. "Dreamed" is used more for emphasis and poetically. "Dreamt" is more common in British English but no definitive rule applies.

[Calibax]

^ "Fowler's Modern English Usage"

[NickorWan]

Depends on the tense.

[elliemay1]

They're both past tense

[NickorWan]

I would say 'Jill made cakes while Jack dreamed he was a pilot'. But I would say 'Jack dreamt he was a pilot' if I was just referring to some instance in the past.

[Jackdaw33]

Many other examples, e.g. burned - burnt
learned - learnt

[Apc2604]

Yes both. Thinking about it I use dreamt. And learnt not learned. I presume both are right.

[bookbinder]

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/is-it-dreamed-or-dreamt-usage

[Calibax]

I think it depends on context rather than tense.
'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.'
but
'I dreamed a dream of time gone by'.
'I dreamt a dream' sounds a bit clunky.

[NickorWan]

Yes, tense is probably not right at all. But what I meant was if I explaining a situation that the reader was to understand and be transported to for the moment, as happens in a novel say.

[Calibax]

If you want to express Jack's wish to be a pilot I would tend to say 'Jack dreamt of being a pilot'.

[NickorWan]

Yes, so would I.

[weecalf]

Dreamed acause it was his dream to be a pilot but dreamt just suggest he had one dream he was a pilot

[Barsel]

A friend of mine is writing a children's book, first attempt, about a little boy who had dreams about adventures he took his friends on and so the chapters start off as 'Jack dreamed he was a ....... and I just thought it would sound better as dreamt and so that is why I asked.
Thanks for your answers.

[Old_Geezer]

...ed tends to sound American to me, whether they're accepted by English dictionaries or not. I'd go for ...t

[jno]

either's okay in my book. The exception seems to be "learned", which now seems to have become an adjective to describe someone with a lot of education, so I always say learnt for the verb.

If anyone asks you to give two words ending in -amt, the other one's undreamt.

[diddlydo]

Both are correct - and I say this as a linguist and native speaker of English.