Grammarama

Lead vs. Led

The past tense of the verb lead—pronounced LEED—is led, which is the conjugation used for all subjects. Instead, people commonly write its homophone, lead, which refers to the element on the periodic table. There is a triangular relationship between these three words: Lead and lead are homonyms, led is a conjugation of lead, and led is a homophone of lead, the metal. Confused yet? Well, confusion is what the following examples will hopefully eliminate.


Examples:

He leads the league in scoring.
At sites known as buffalo jumps, Native Americans once led herds of bison over cliffs, sending them plunging to their deaths.
Children can obtain lead poisoning from eating paint chips.
Stop leading me on.
Robert E. Lee led the Confederate forces at Gettysburg, the largest battle of the American Civil War.
It was Colonel Mustard with the lead pipe in the conservatory!