From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishldoce_728_zlearnlearn /lɜːn $ lɜːrn/ ●●● S1 W1 verb (past tense and past participle learned or learnt /lɜːnt $ lɜːrnt/ especially British English) 1 subject/skill [intransitive, transitive]LEARNSTUDY to gain knowledge of a subject or skill, by experience, by studying it, or by being taught → teach What’s the best way to learn a language?learn (how) to do something I learnt to drive when I was 17. Hector spent the winter learning how to cope with his blindness. The teacher’s task is to help the pupil learn.learn (something) from somebody I learned a lot from my father.learn about Kids can have fun and learn about music at the same time.learn what Youngsters must learn what is dangerous and what is not to be feared. The student will learn from experience about the importance of planning.GRAMMAR: Patterns with learn• You learn to do something: She’s learning to play the piano.• You learn how to do something: She is learning how to play the piano. ✗Don’t say: She is learning playing the piano.2 find out [intransitive, transitive] formalFIND OUT to find out information or news by hearing it from someone else or reading it SYN discover I didn’t tell her the truth. She would learn it for herself soon enough.learn of/about He learned about his appointment by telephone yesterday.learn (that) Last week I learned that I was pregnant. She was surprised to learn that he was a lot older than she had thought.learn whether/who/why I waited to learn whether I’d secured a college place. We have yet to learn who will be the new manager.3 remember [transitive]LEARN to get to know something so well that you can easily remember it SYN memorize The actors hardly had time to learn their lines before filming started.4 change your behaviour [intransitive, transitive]LEARN to gradually understand a situation and start behaving in the way that you shouldlearn (that) They have to learn that they can’t just do whatever they like.learn to do something Young hairdressers must learn to treat the client as a person, not a head of hair. I’ve told him a hundred times not to bully people, but he never learns.learn from You have to learn from your mistakes (=understand why what you did was wrong). the lessons learned in the Gulf War5 → somebody has learned their lesson6 → learn (something) the hard way7 → that’ll learn sb! → live and learn at live1(20)THESAURUSlearn to gain knowledge of a subject or skill, especially by being taught or trainedHow long have you been learning Italian?At what age can you learn to drive in America?study to learn about a subject by reading books, going to classes etc, especially at school or universityShe’s studying music at Berkeley College in California.train to learn the skills and get the experience that you need in order to do a particular jobJulie’s training to be a nurse.pick something up to learn something without much effort, by watching or listening to other peopleIt’s easy to pick up a language when you’re living in a country.The rules of the game are easy – you’ll soon pick them up.get the hang of something informal to learn how to do or use something that is fairly complicated, especially with practiceIt took me a while to get the hang of all the features on my new camera.revise British English, review American English to study facts again, especially on your own, in order to learn them before an examination Jenny’s upstairs revising for her Maths exam tomorrow.master to learn something so well that you have no difficulty with it, especially a skill or a languageShe gave me a book called ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’.I learnt Spanish for years but I never really mastered it. → See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
learn• I'm going to try to learn 12 new words each week.• Before you sail, you need to learn about basic boat controls.• Our children attend the group twice a week to learn about Sikhism.• Have you learned anything from the experience?• How long have you been learning German?• As an actor, she always had trouble learning her lines.• On this course, you will learn how to deal with communication problems.• How long did it take you to learn how to do this?• Dad taught us a Sanskrit prayer, and we had to learn it off by heart and say it every day.• I've been trying to learn my lines, but I haven't gotten very far.• He felt that his son needed to learn some hard lessons about life.• I had learnt that as a woman, if your talents are ignored at work, you must be assertive.• I soon learned that it was best to keep quiet.• Never lend money to your friends - that's something I learnt the hard way.• I doubt if we will ever learn the truth.• If you have a good memory you can learn things by rote, but can you apply it in practice?• Do you think you can learn this tune for Friday's performance?• By sharing their problems, sufferers of the disease learn to cope with the symptoms.• His daughter's learning to drive.• Gradually, I learned to trust her.learn (how) to do something• Chloe explains it takes a few days to learn how to breastfeed.• Didn't you learn to drive when you were 15?• Several techniques have been developed to teach demand feeding to adults, to help them stop dieting and learn to eat normally.• How does the child learn to heed the warning?• Ed might have learned to lead.• Again David may have learnt a valuable lesson - children need to learn how to select friends who are good for them.• Brown learned to play guitar, violin, harmonica, piano, mandolin, viola and drums.• The child can never learn to play without the parent playing with the child.• Therefore they do not learn to solve their own problems through an awareness of the process of spirit.learn of/about• I had learned about a minor siege connected with an important river crossing not far from my home.• In the WhoUs Who section, you learn about famous scientists.• I learned of her death yesterday.• You should also remember that you too have safety needs and you should learn about potential dangers to yourself and other staff.• The students are learning about the actual job what the requirements are, what the expectations are.• But why did we have to wait 30 years to learn about them?• In the years to come they had much to learn about themselves; their managerial identity was just beginning to take hold.• He learned about where the money came from and where it went, its exciting Protestant predictability.• I have developed a theory to explain recent incidents in the light of what I have learned about you.learn ... lines• It's time for the synthetic actors to start learning their lines.• The fact could not be avoided: Michael Banks could no longer learn lines.• The only way for it to look any different is for Michael to learn the bloody lines.• He had little patience with learning lines, a habit which spread to members of his company.• Do not learn your lines, as this can make the talk rather stilted unless you are a competent actor.• On another part of the movie lot, Charlie Schlatter was learning his final lines of the drama.• George Birkitt got lazy about learning his lines too.learn (that)• For all that I have learned a greater variety of games, there are fewer I can tolerate.• You hardly had to learn a thing.• But now I see he was totally useless to learn from.• Their goslings never learned how to migrate, and their descendants live on.• She should have learned long ago not to take him seriously.• A lot can be learned simply from the way a patient chooses to interpret a dream.• Children learn to speak and understand speech first and without the formal instruction needed when learning to read and write.• They learn to talk without workbooks, homework lessons, curriculum guides, tests, or assignments.Origin learn Old English leornian 