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Past tense of “lead”

🚩 To show the way; to be in charge.

Number 88 of 175 by frequency — common in reading and television, less so in your own speech, and the past and the participle are both led. Recognising it is the priority.

Say it right

The base rhymes with need, the past with bed — and the past is spelled led, not lead. Writing “he lead the team” is the most common spelling mistake in this whole list, because the metal lead sounds exactly like led.

Do not confuse it with…

The past is spelled led. Lead with an a is either the present tense or the metal, never the past.

Phrases you will actually hear

These are worth learning whole. A verb sticks far better inside a phrase somebody would really say than on its own in a table.

Two forms, learned as one word

The past simple and the past participle are the same word, led. Half the work disappears: learn lead · led and you have the whole verb. What is left is telling the two jobs apart — The guide led us through the forest. is the past simple, She has led the team since May. is the perfect, and have does all the signalling.

There is no tidy rule connecting lead to led — this is a verb you memorise as a pair and stop analysing. The consolation is that it is a pair and not a trio: leaded is the only wrong answer worth guarding against.

The same pattern — twins — runs through 73 verbs: