# The past tense of Lead is Led
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [May 29, 2019, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700 "2019-05-29T08:13:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/21 "2019-05-29T21:10:55Z")
Does **lead** rhyme with **read**?
Yes.
No.
Maybe. Sometimes. It depends.
I hate English. :mad:
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/22 "2019-05-29T21:24:29Z")
> [@kanicbird](#):
>
> Wouldn’t the past tense of lead be some degenerate matter as lead (Pb) is generally formed from a supernova. **Led is those efficient lights** that everyone has now, so the past tense of led are incandescent.
LED.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/23 "2019-05-29T21:31:40Z")
So, C[sub]8[/sub]H[sub]18[/sub] with added Pb(C[sub]2[/sub]H[sub]5[/sub])[sub]4[/sub] would be led gas?
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/24 "2019-05-29T21:48:43Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#):
>
> Sorry, I don’t turn to the AP Stylebook when I verify spellings.
>
> Oxford Dictionary til I die, MFers!
Unless it’s at the beginning of a sentence, “motherfuckers” should not be capitalized. Nor should its abbreviation. The same holds true for the term “melon farmers.”
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/25 "2019-05-29T21:51:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Is the Future Tense of _Light Emitting Diode_ “LEAD”?
Only when it’s installed in series with a flux capacitor…
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/26 "2019-05-29T21:52:23Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> Nor should its abbreviation.
Sentence fragment!
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/27 "2019-05-29T23:10:14Z")
For all intensive purposes, I suspect its not likely to raze a great hue and cry, and few will be phased as you hone in on this triviality.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/28 "2019-05-29T23:28:07Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#):
>
> Sorry, I don’t turn to the AP Stylebook when I verify spellings.
>
> Oxford Dictionary til I die, MFers!
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> Unless it’s at the beginning of a sentence, “motherfuckers” should not be capitalized. Nor should its abbreviation. The same holds true for the term “melon farmers.”
It depends. Was he measuring in megafarads or millifarads?
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/29 "2019-05-29T23:35:52Z")
I’m noticing a lot of people who write “segway” lately. It’s interesting trying to correct them without seeming like a jerk. I usually use the excuse that I don’t want them to be embarrassed in the future.
I also got a comic writer (who has the right kind of personality) to write “shouldn’t’ve” instead of “shouldn’t of.” It was the type of comic where a lot of the fans were relieved by the change.
The “segway” issue also reminds me of how the movie _The Santa Clause_ resulted in so many people misspelling the jolly old elf’s name.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2019, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/30 "2019-05-29T23:49:35Z")
And hmmm… what’s the past tense of “plead”?
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/31 "2019-05-30T00:12:21Z")
> [@eschereal](#):
>
> For all intensive purposes, I suspect its not likely to raze a great hue and cry, and few will be phased as you hone in on this triviality.
You mean “human cry”, of course.
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/32 "2019-05-30T00:17:56Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> You mean “human cry”, of course.
You are correct, of course. I had thought the word was “hew”, for some odd reason.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/33 "2019-05-30T16:08:27Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> And hmmm… what’s the past tense of “plead”?
Those pants are out of style.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/34 "2019-05-30T16:24:07Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> You mean “human cry”, of course.
> [@eschereal](#):
>
> You are correct, of course. I had thought the word was “hew”, for some odd reason.
Oh, I get it! You guys are fucking with me. The entomology according to Wikipedia is: “It is possible that the term is an Anglicization via Anglo-French of the Latin hutesium et clamor, meaning “a horn and shouting”.[2] Other sources indicate that it has always been a somewhat redundant phrase meaning an outcry and cry, though such “redundancy” is a feature of the legal doublet. “Hue” appears to come from the Old French huer, which means “to shout”, and “cry” from Old French crier (“to cry”).”
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/35 "2019-05-30T16:45:00Z")
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> … The entomology according to Wikipedia is …
not sure I would trust that until they debug it
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### Author:  [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/36 "2019-05-30T17:07:20Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> I fully support this pitting. It peeves me, too.
>
> It’s an understandable mistake. The past tense of “read” is pronounced “red” but it’s still spelled “read”; so it makes at least a little bit of sense that people would try to make “lead” work the same way. Plus there actually is a word (the metal) that’s pronounced “led” but spelled “lead” ( **unless you’re talking about “Led Zeppelin”** ).
>
> So I can see why some people might be [del]lead[/del] led astray,
>
> Still, if you’re a grown-up, and English is your first language, you really ought to be able to figure this out.
The story I’ve always heard is that Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, et al., went with “Led” _precisely because_ they didn’t want people to pronounce the first word of their band name _that other way_ (don’t know for sure if the story is true but that’s what I’ve always heard. . .Okay, fine - the _only_ place I’ve ever heard that is from a very good friend of mine. But he’s a mechanical engineer these days and I’ve always found him to be very truthful so unless/until shown otherwise I have no reason to _not_ believe it).
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/37 "2019-05-30T17:11:46Z")
> [@EllisDee](#):
>
> Minor rant, but I’ve been seeing this more and more here on the dope and it drives me up a wall.
>
> I just now did a post search covering all forums for the word “lead” just to get an idea of the frequency of the mistake. Here are the mistakes I found in just the past week, in order of most recent first:
Good rant. My university-level students do this all the time. Even after I correct it in their papers, they keep doing it.
I understand that the irregularities of the English language can sometimes be a little frustrating, but it’s really not that hard to get it right.
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### Author:  [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/38 "2019-05-30T17:19:41Z")
> [@mhendo](#):
>
> Good rant. My university-level students do this all the time. Even after I correct it in their papers, they keep doing it.
>
> I understand that the irregularities of the English language can sometimes be a little frustrating, but it’s really not that hard to get it right.
Only “a little”? I’m a native speaker of English and I get frustrated with the irregularities of our fine language all the time! (sometimes makes me wish that English had some of the diacritical marks - in particular, accent marks - that are prominent in other languages - the very ones that Bill Bryson once wrote that “English is thankfully free of.”)
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/39 "2019-05-30T17:47:50Z")
> [@racepug](#):
>
> … I get frustrated with the irregularities of our fine language all the time! …
Irregularity is a feature of language development. All languages have odd features that do not quite match up with their broader symmetry. I suspect that it is a valuable feature that serves a sort of noise-reduction kind of function.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-past-tense-of-lead-is-led/834700/40 "2019-05-30T18:02:55Z")
**The past tense of Lead is Led**
What **lead** s you to that conclusion?
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