Usage of at school/in school, learned/learnt

[Penny Lane]

which would you say,

I (learned or learnt) maths
when i was (at or in ) school.

um, i would be happy if 'british' answer that question

also, i'd like to know about,
at the weekend, on the weekend,
or
burned, burnt

as i know, british people say at the weekend, at school,
and they tend to use burnt, learnt, than burned, learned.
i'd like to know if what i know is right or not.

cheers!

[Inga]

Hi!
I'm the first to answer though I'm not a native speaker.
As far as I know, both at school and in school mean in the school building.
At school sometimes mean attending a school, rather than being at college or university or having a job in British English. In American English in school is used in the same meaning.
At the weekend - BrE, on the weekend - AmE. (At weekends and on weekends accordingly.)
But I'm not sure and want to know native speakers' opinion.
_________________
I am an incurable optimist.

[Jamie (K)]

The British tend to use burnt and learnt, but burned and learned are not wrong in the UK either, from what I read in the British ESL textbooks I used to teach from in Europe. Learned and burned are standard in North America, but learnt and burnt are not wrong either. However, in North America if someone uses learnt and burnt as their normal past tense forms, it may be seen by some people as an indication of a low educational level.

Americans use both at school and in school. We don't say at the weekend, but we say on the weekend, over the weekend, during the weekend, or something else, depending on what we are trying to say. I believe the British also use various prepositions with "weekend", depending on what they mean.

Keep in mind that most of the British-American differences that are taught in non-English-speaking countries are either false, exaggerated, over-simplified or don't matter to native English speakers.

[Penny Lane]

thanks Inga and Jamie!
yeah, i know either isn't wrong, in the US, or UK, wherever. just wondered which is used more often, commonly in those countries.
cheers!

[Lucci]

Hello, I am just new here. I'm lucci and I'm also learning English. I would like to ask Alan, Torsten and the others about these sentences.

I haven't been absent in school for a while.
I haven't been absent at school for a while.

Which one is correct? and why?

Thanks
lucci

[Cerberus™]

I'd say "absent from school".

[Lucci]

oh thanks, for the help..