A grammatical plea to think “Led Zeppelin” and not “Leadville” when using the past tense of the verb “to lead”
Please don’t think of me as a grammar Nazi. Think of me as a friend of the Periodic Table, who is tired of seeing an intermittently innocent heavy metal being thoughtlessly ABUSED by my fellow members of the Truth Community.
Surely, the element LEAD is bad, just like arsenic and fluorine. But Lead is a cultured killer. Please give him some credit, for being civilized since the earliest days of civilization. Lead may be a predator on women and children, but he’s a very civilized butler who probably did it.
Lead, however, is not a HOOLIGAN who uses incorrect English.
In contrast to the element, I call your attention to the past tense of “to lead”, where “leading” means a variety of things with which you are familiar.
LINK: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lead
Unlike the verb “to read”, where “read” (pronounced like “reed”) is the present tense, and “read” (pronounced like “red”) is the past tense, the verb “to lead” gives rise to “lead” which is pronounced like “leed”) in the present tense, and “led” (pronounced like the element lead, Pb) in the past tense.
THERE IS NO VERB “LEAD” IN THE PAST TENSE.
Don’t believe me? Look here:
LINK: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/2281
LINK: https://grammarist.com/spelling/led-lead/
LINK: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/led-lead/
Thankfully, this mistake is rarely made by the posters on our site. It is, however, quite common in blog posts, comments, and articles which are brought in from the internet.
I hope to keep things that way. My purpose is to warn you away from such foolishness. Even the deadly “should of” (it’s “should’ve”, a contraction of “should have”) is quaintly excusable as emergent new English, in my horribly radical linguistic opinion.
But the element LEAD as a past tense? HORRIFYING.
Please don’t equate the mere historical mass murderer LEAD with genocidal maniacs like FAUCI, TEDROS, and WALENSKY, who surely misconjugate the verb “to lead”, among their various other crimes.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Your efforts to avoid Fauci-level linguistic crimes will be rewarded by not seeing the above picture, which I intend to post whenever I see “lead” used in a past tense where “led” is appropriate. Even if merely being quoted from the internet.
Your humble grammar Nazi defender of a fellow heavy metal,
W
Oh my. On notice. 
Usually, I reserve rereading articles, to Steve’s stuff. Likely a couple runs on this.
Video ~Three minutes.
Appreciate the pointers. Now, to understand them. 
On second pass, not needing a third. 
Lead and led clear. Should’ve, equally clear.
Hopefully I won’t receive the dreaded Tedros, FauXi and Walensky pic, under one of my posts. 
I suspect a wisea… may bait ya, with an improperly placed, lead. Funnin ya. 
LMAO!!!
And OMG, that video is hilarious!
That video is a classic; I’ve often linked it myself.
This is very good, Wolfmoon. As I get older I notice my spelling, and sometimes, horrors, my grammar, going down hill a bit, and I always knew “lead” and “led” until I saw wrong usage so often that I began to question what I once had known and had to go and look it up. I appreciate these kinds of posts. I think it’s all part of remembering where we came from, which some evil entities would like us to forget. It may seem like a minor thing, but it isn’t.
Zoe! Nice see’n ya. Hope all is well!
Seconded!!!
Exactly!!! I have been seeing it so much, out there, I just finally said “NO MORE!”
Oh, my goodness, Kalbo, are you lightning fingers? You almost responded before I wrote it. Ha ha. I’m fine, thank you. All the best to you.
I frequently use incorrect grammer (and speling) for humorless effect 😁
LOL! But not that time!
Lede-ing the way is he 😀
Followed by Weird Al, weighing in on the subject(s) at hand 🙂
Tom Homan….. Good video about the border crisis:
Scott, what a treat to find you on here this evening. Your writing is such a pleasure to read.
Amen!
And great to find you here, too, Zoe!!!
Zoe, you are too kind… as my critics would be quick to point out 😂
We’ve got one person who consistently uses “should of” and I’ve long since ceased grinding my teeth over it.
But as long as we’re on the topic:
FGS it’s “should have” or “should’ve” It’s a contraction of “should have” it is NOT “SHOULD OF”
LOL!!!
My money is on this new usage of “of” becoming proper English, because only grammarians with etymological specialization will be able to explain it. It brings out the Spock in people.
We should’ve expected it back at the contraction stage. Or maybe some did.
Fascinating.
I know of a linguist who predicted that we’d eventualy see a new verb, “zaw” for “to say” (but only as a past tense). How? “Well he’s all ‘what a bitch'” (modern slang), and “he’s all” is basically “he zaw”.
Words are funny things…..
Besides “read” and “read”, which change how they should be pronounced based on theri tense, there is another pair of common English words that change, depending on if one is capitalized……
There are also two three-letter English words that sound exactly the same…..but have no letters in common……
Ewe May be wright about this!
Thanks for the informative illustration, stolen and bookmarked for future use.
Lead pipes in older houses are a bad thing but finding toothpaste without fluoride is flaming nigh on impossible.
Sorry for diverting off topic but it’s something that irks me.
It’s now possible to find fluoride-free toothpastes in several brands in America. There are multiple choices in Target stores. Dentists are also offering new anticavity agents with don’t use fluoride.
The push-back by awakened consumers is slowly working.
There’s a ton of good bad grammar jokes to be found.
LOL!!!
One which I’ve seen written occasionally is “I could care less” which without a “?” mark after it reads the opposite of what is meant, when taken in context with the full remark.
Yes, this is a very common one! I just read them both the same now. I’m a RINO of grammar, I’ll admit. Squishy, like that Trump girl on SCOTUS.
Wolf Moon
Thank you so much for this!
Yours Truly has made plenty enough errors in grammar and syntax on the board here to know to check more carefully before clicking on the “Post Comment” box — now I need to do it.
I have to be very careful with homophones – I’m constantly typing the wrong “their” because I try to type too fast!