I get it. The verb read can be pronounced reed (for the present tense) or red (the past tense). Both the present and past tense are spelled the same way, but pronounced differently. So maybe that’s the thinking behind this goof on Yahoo! Shine:
Maybe the writer was thinking that plead is like read. Here’s a shocker for her: The past tense of plead is not plead. Plead is pronounced pleed, never pled. The past tense of plead is pleaded (or pled).
December 31, 2013 at 5:51 pm
Those pesky irregular verbs again. You think French is hard????
Read [“reed”], read [“red”]; Plead [“pleed”], pleaded [“pleaded”].
Then there’s the “to be” chapter, and the two “lie” chapters.
December 31, 2013 at 9:09 pm
I just don’t get what’s so hard about the past tense of “plead.” Until I started this blog, I had never seen the past tense spelled as “plead.” But now I think Yahoo is trying to get it accepted as another alternative.
January 5, 2014 at 7:27 pm
We can only hope that they don’t have friends at Merriam-Webster’s – the arbitr of “new words”.
January 5, 2014 at 10:07 pm
Fingers crossed!