When I got there, I readed the docket, then meeted a group of attorneys. I leaded them up to Courtroom B where we heard the accused. He pleaded guilty.

Pleaded? When did we start talking this way?

According to my Funk & Wagnalls, EITHER pleaded or pled is correct. I, personally, prefer pleaded. "The young hostage pleaded for her life." vs "The young hostage pled for her life" ?? I think the former sounds better. IMHO.

The past tense of read is read, but the past tense of lead is led ---Go figger! A lot of people on these boards get that last one wrong.

When there are acceptable options, I like the more regular. So I like pleaded. Irregular forms only make it harder for kids and ESL's to learn to speak and write.

(My excepting is for nonsense words. I note irregardless is now acceptable. Up with this I will not put.)

quote:

Originally posted by Kendor:

Pleaded? When did we start talking this way?

Ever since we spoke English !
Here's the Oxford English Dictionary : "Plead verb Past tense and participle pleaded; (now chiefly Scottish Dialect and North America) pled
Oh, do try to keep up, you people over there ! Scottish dialect, indeed!

The four quotations given to illustrate the use of the past tense are from Gibbon (C18)and Fay Weldon (C20), both English, using pleaded but Robert Lynd (early C20 Scots ) and Alan Pryce Jones ( C20 Welsh) using pled. As Scots and Welsh don't speak English, but a foreign language ("English", though some speak a Celtic language too) we may safely ignore their attempts at dialect.

Since Gibbon was using 'pleaded' in his Decline and Fall it seems that 'pleaded' was accepted a long time ago. For myself, I have never heard anyone use 'pled', even at the Scots Bar, but evidently in America some forms of the verb are different (because of Scots immigrants ? )

Originally posted by frankvan:

"... the past tense of lead is led ..."

I thought it was polonium!

quote:

Originally posted by babthrower:
Originally posted by frankvan:

"... the past tense of lead is led ..."

I thought it was polonium!

There are enthusuiasts who regularly write things like "Grant lead the Union Army". Now you've done it. I expect soon to see someone write "Grant poloniumed the Union Army". I hope you're satisfied.

Originally posted by frankvan:

"Grant poloniumed the Union Army".

Ummm, I think Grant lead the Union army, but it was the Confederate Army that he poloniumed.

[This has got to stop!]

quote:

There are enthusuiasts who regularly write things like "Grant lead the Union Army".

"enthusuiasts" ??
I'll stop if you stop first!

I'm sorry y'all, I must have grown up under a rock where I'd never heard the word 'pleaded.' Every TV show I watched, movies that I saw, and any other forum in which one made a plea, the word's past form was 'pled.' I'm not making this up. I had only started to hear 'pleaded' a few years ago when real court cases became popular television fodder.

Don't let it happen again!

Well, just remember, fodder doesn't always know best!

Everyone's a comedian.

And so many comedians out of work, too. Such a shame.........