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born  –  borne

[the same pronunciation]

Both these words are the ‘past participle forms of the verb ‘bear’ which mans

(a) to give birth to the young,

(b) to suffer or to carry:  bear — bore –  born/borne

When the idea is ‘to express some connection with “birth”, use ‘born’, e.g. “She was born in 2000.”

And to express ‘to suffer, carry or endure a burden, an insult, a good character or some responsibility, use “borne”, e.g. He has borne all the troubles in order to complete his education.

It’s difficult to control airborne diseases. [i.e. diseases that are spread through air --- flu, small pox, etc.]

However, “borne” is also used in connection with ‘birth’ in such expression as ‘A woman has borne a child.’ and ‘She has borne him four sons.’ and ‘She was borne by her mother on a Monday.’ In this context the subject of “bear” (borne) is always a woman.

Compare:

Nikki was born on a Friday.

Nikki was borne by her mother on a Friday.

1.  “Born” is used as an adjective to mean ‘brought into this world by birth’, and also metaphorically:

e.g. She was a born singer. He was born English but was brought up in Africa. It is believed that crime is born of poverty.

2.  “Born” is not used with the present tense form of the ‘be’, ‘is’ or ‘are’, or with ‘has’ or ‘have’ when used with the idea of ‘coming into the world by birth’ in the real sense, because we talk about anybody’s birth only when or after the actual birth took place; however, while talking about several children coming into the world every day or every year, we may use ‘is’ or ‘are’, e.g. “Every year thousands of children are born to AIDS parents!”:

e.g.

I am born on a rainy night.  [wrong]

I was born on a rainy night. [right]

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