learn a habit

Helping others is a habit, _______ you can learn even at an early age.

A. it B. that C. what D. one (the given answer is D)

Would native English speakers use 'learn' in this sentence? Would 'form/acquire/develop/get' be more natural when we referto a habit?

Thank you in advance.

joham said:

Helping others is a habit, _______ you can learn even at an early age.

A. it B. that C. what D. one (the given answer is D)

Would native English speakers use 'learn' in this sentence? Would 'form/acquire/develop/get' be more natural when we referto a habit?

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

Dear joham,


The purpose of the test is grammar not vocabulary or collocation, but now you mention it, I have to say they are all good; personally, I would choose develop - that's just a preference.
Learn a habit is acceptable too. When a child copies his parents' behaviors, she is actually leaning them.

joham said:

Helping others is a habit, _______ you can learn even at an early age.

A. it B. that C. what D. one (the given answer is D)

Would native English speakers use 'learn' in this sentence? Would 'form/acquire/develop/get' be more natural when we referto a habit?

Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

Could you help me with this ?

chester_100 said:

Dear joham,


The purpose of the test is grammar not vocabulary or collocation, but now you mention it, I have to say they are all good; personally, I would choose develop - that's just a preference.
Learn a habit is acceptable too. When a child copies his parents' behaviors, she is actually leaning them.

Click to expand...

Dear chester,
Thank you for your help. I saw there was one reply and tried to open the page four times, but the page wouldn't appear. Then I posted my question again, and there was your reply. It was strange; I had never experience such a situation. But I got your kind help after all. Thank you againl.

That's O.K.
You're welcome.

I searched Mark Davies's BNC, COCA, COHA and the Time corpus (with a total of one billion words), there are only four sentences that contain the construction of 'learn a/the habit'. Is it idiomatic or acceptable to native English speakers?

Thank you again.

OK, but try this one:
It's certainly acceptable and learn bad habits is a natural-sounding collocation to me, which is why I chose it as a search. You obviously can use many other verbs.