Monday, 5 November 2018

led, lead



A lot of people seem to be getting this wrong these days, usually by writing “lead” when it should be “led” – as in “the path lead me in the wrong direction”.

The confusion comes because “lead” can be pronounced either as “ledd” or “leed”, depending on its meaning. The “ledd” sound is only used when “lead” refers to the grey metal of that name. The “leed” sound is the present tense of “led”.

So correct usages would be:

The lead on the church roof has been stolen.

Does this road lead to Leicester?

He led me astray.

© John Welford

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