# Legal / English

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-english/178393>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 29, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-english/178393 "2003-05-29T23:28:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tcdaniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@tcdaniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tcdaniel)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-english/178393/1 "2003-05-29T23:28:09Z")

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I’ve seen again and again the phrase “…he pleaded guilty…”.  
My question is - shouldn’t this be “he plead guilty”?  
IANAL, but I think something is wrong with this word pleaded.

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**Author:** ![tcdaniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@tcdaniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tcdaniel)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-english/178393/2 "2003-05-29T23:29:51Z")

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My english teacher would have given me an F for saying something like He rided the bike to school.

This must be some of the new school larnen

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-english/178393/3 "2003-05-29T23:36:50Z")

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And I suppose that after he plead guilty, he was hung?

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**Author:** ![RedNaxela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ad7895/32.png) [@RedNaxela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedNaxela)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-english/178393/4 "2003-05-29T23:46:37Z")

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IANAL either, but a quick Google search (on _pled pleaded_) seems to show that, if anything, it’s the other way around: _pleaded_ is generally considered the more correct form.

For example, from the Columbia Guide to Standard English ([http://www.bartleby.com/68/32/4632.html](http://www.bartleby.com/68/32/4632.html)):

> [@](#):
>
> **plead (_v._)**
> 
> The past tense is pleaded, pled, or plead (this last pronounced PLED), and the past participle, pleaded, pled, or plead (PLED). Pleaded, the regular weak verb form, is more frequent for both parts of speech, and the pled and plead past and past participle forms are labeled Colloquial by some dictionaries, Standard by others.
> 
> Plead not guilty and plead guilty are Standard idioms (His lawyer advised him to plead not guilty [guilty]), and the media almost always uses pled to report a defendant’s actions: The defendant pled [not] guilty.

And if it still looks strange, consider this: you “needed” an answer to this question, or you “ned” one? 😉