Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010

Ricardo set the following eddies spiralling through the space-time
continuum:

BrE tends to use the "strong" form (vowel shift and/or add n or t) rather
than the "weak" form (add -ed). A notable exception is "dived" which is
more usual over here, presumably to avoid confusion with the bird. "Dwelt"
is more usual than "dwelled", similarly "spelt" instead of "spelled", and
for "dream" the spelling "dreampt" is also found.

Minor variants between BrE and AmE is when to double the final consonant,
BrE preferring to double e.g. "travelled" for AmE "traveled".

Incorrect strong forms e.g. "brung", "bruck", or the use of a weak form
where a strong one is usual e.g. "runned", are used on both sides of the
Pond to convey a sense of uneducated ignorance.

The ones you mention are all acceptable AmE.  Some strike me as pretty
uncommon (dwelt is one I rarely here), but for most of the multiple-
option conjugations all of the variants seem pretty common to me.  As
a native AmE speaker, I couldn't tell you without research whether
dreamed or dreamt is more common (either as a past tense or past
participle), likewise sprang or sprung.

Webster's contains all of the quoted variants as acceptable, without
flagging any of them as BrE or archaic.  There are occasional notes
like:

"In the United States dived and dove are both widespread in speech as
past tense and past participle, with dove less common than dived in
the south Midland area, and dived less common than dove in the
Northern and north Midland areas. In writing, the past tense dived is
usual in British English and somewhat more common in American English.
Dove seems relatively rare as a past participle in writing."

Some of the variants are nearly always used when paired with other
words.  It would be unidiomatic to speak of a cloven palette or cleft
hooves, despite both cleft and cloven being fine conjugations of
cleave.  Sometimes rhyming or otherwise coordinating with surrounding
words is the deciding factor in which variant to use:  "Smelled" is
more common than "smelt", but if you're discussing the passing of gas
every schoolboy will tell you that "the one who smelt it dealt it".
And some are more common in certain kinds of settings--"pled" is used
almost invariably by lawyers, while non-legal formal generally writing
prefers "pleaded" (though "pled" is gaining popularity).

There are far more similarities between AmE and BrE than differences,
Ricardo.