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But lead is, when you're hit over the head with it! Gold star! 🌟

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How is ️baby B?

See the Answer discussion below for latest news.

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/ledd/ [lɛd]. And that's the answer to today's question: "Yesterday (in the PAST), I LED a parade down Main Street." Today, I lead (LEED); yesterday, I led (LEDD); tomorrow, I will lead (LEED). By the way, I can't pass up this chance to say that if

some circumstance in the past prevented me from leading, I say, "I would've (NOT would of) led." "Would've" is a contraction for "would HAVE," and the word "of" has NOTHING to do with the subjunctive past tense of any verb.
OK, back to led/lead.

The culprit that causes our confusion is a totally unrelated noun, "lead" (pronounced /LEDD/ [lɛd]), a toxic grayish metal, chemical symbol Pb (derived from its Latin name, "plumbum"). Yes, lead pipes are where we got the word "plumbing." Now the

problem is that we have a VERB "lead, led, leading" and a NOUN "lead" which are not spelled and pronounced consistently: "He led me into the lead-lined chamber" uses two spellings for one pronunciation, while "I will lead you to the lead deposit in

the mine" uses one spelling for two different pronunciations.
So how can you keep these three little imps straight? Create mnemonics (the first letter is silent), or memory devices.
(1) Look Either Direction (LED) when you're about to be led.

(2) Ed the Plumber works with lead pipes. (Ed & lead rhyme)
(3) Lead me to the nearest leaning tower. (Lead, near, and lean all have the "long ē" sound) Get the mental image of yourself visiting Pisa, Italy for this one to stick in your mind.

As always, there's no charge for the mnemonics — it cost me nothing to think them up!
On a total side note, Catherine (my daughter) and little 3-day-old grandson Ben are out of the hospital and resting comfortably at home, with the assistance of

daddy Don, who is, if possible, nearly as proud as I am! They stopped by this afternoon for a while, and we're grilling steaks for lunch tomorrow with them and my son Tom III and his fiancée Amy. Tom & Catherine's birthdays are Saturday and Sunday.

Enough of that for now. Today's orthographic excursion brought to you, as always, by:

⚜ ᎢᎻᎬ ᏩᎡᎪᎷᎷᎪᎡ ᏢᎾᏞᏆᏟᎬ ⚜
[Ɔɹ-θɑɡˈ-ɹə-fi] "Я" Us!

Just like read and red!!!! Oh... Wait.

😏😉

Tom! I never thought a lecture on lead/led could ever pique my interest, but alas, your mastery of the English language and eloquence in explaining it has led me down yet another amazing lecture. You even touched on one of my biggest pet peeves, and

that is when people ignorantly use "would of" or "could of" instead of the correct contraction of "would have" and "could have." Thank you Officer Tom! You are a gentleman and a scholar! 😊

My highschool english teacher strongly believed "lead" was the correct way to spell led, and that led was itself a mistake that had somehow been accepted by the powers that be. She'd go off on that tangent on a regular basis.

I have gleaned another semantic treasure this morning. My father, a professor of chemistry and a linguist, never chose to enlighten me on the origin of the word Plumb. That is plum confusing to me. Nor does it explain why my plum tree is not plum.

Perhaps I am just plum lead headed? Please help me Tom.

Great explanation, Tom! Yes, the 'would of' error is an annoying one. It deserves its own poll.

Derek, that was clever of you to pique our interest in Tom's recent poll on the word 'pique'.

MrMilk: at what age where you when this teacher burdened you with such a leaden diatribe?

A junior. She was very intelligent, and she's go through the development and history of the word in grueling detail. If anything it taught me to remember the difference and it was a good introduction to the wild world of high stakes etymology.

She'd

LOL Milk!!!

Phurst ;)

Light-emitting diode. Yes indeed. Gold star! 🌟