No clue. No clue at all

I know this teaser on the home page of Yahoo! Finance is wrong, but I have no clue how to make it right:

Donald Trump lead makes no sense to me, even if the editor had used the correct past tense of lead, which is led. Is there a word or two missing? Should this be: Donald Trump’s election led …? Who knows!?

Also, who knows why the editor chose to use data as a plural noun. Although data can be used with either a singular or a plural verb, except in the most technical cases, it’s treated as a singular noun denoting a mass quantity. Anyone Googling the word would see that recent data shows it’s most often used with a singular verb.

Get the lead out!

Ya’ gotta wonder what led the Yahoo! Style to think that this was the correct word:

Although lead can be pronounced led, it’s not the past tense of the verb lead. That would be led.

Get the lead out!

What led the Yahoo! Celebrity writer to think that this was the past tense of lead?

The verb is lead (pronounced leed) and its past tense is led (pronounced, um, led). The noun lead is also pronounced led. Is that what led to this writer’s confusion?

What led you to believe that was correct?

What led the writer for Yahoo! Celebrity to believe this was correct?

The word lead (when it’s pronounced led) is the stuff inside a pencil. The past tense of the verb lead (pronounced leed) is led.

What led you to believe that was correct?

Though this article on Yahoo! Makers was written by a professional, it belies her knowledge of grammar, which led to her using the wrong word for the past tense of the verb lead:

Perhaps she thinks because when lead refers to the stuff in a pencil, it’s pronounced LED. But when you’re looking for the past tense of the verb (which is pronounced LEED), it’s also pronounced LED, and spelled — surprise! — led.

They’ve done it again

Oops. They’ve done it again. And again. The writers at Yahoo! Style simply haven’t mastered English grammar and continue to commit obvious and egregious grammatical gaffes. First, it’s the mismatch of a singular subject (Sophie Webster) with a plural verb (have done). How does such an obvious error get past the editors? Oh, yeah, there are no editors.

Then there’s the glaring use of lead (which, when pronounced led, is the stuff inside a pencil) instead of the past tense led. Not content with showing an astounding ignorance of grammar, the writer displays a complete disregard for the trademarked Coca-Cola.

They’ve done it again. And they’ll do it again.

You have been led astray

If you’re like the writer Yahoo! Style and think this is correct, you’ve been led astray sometime in your elementary school education:

The past tense of lead (which, as a verb, is pronounced LEED) is led; the stuff inside a pencil is lead (which is pronounced LED).

I’m way past tense

After reading this, I’m not merely tense — I’m way past tense and entering the land of anxiety. And the cause of my emotional state is the constant assault on the English language by the brilliant writers for the Yahoo! front page:

I’m going to guess that the writer thinks that the verb lead is like the verb read. The past tense of read (pronounced REED) is read (pronounced RED). The past tense of lead (pronounced LEED) is led (pronounced LED).

What led you astray?

What led the writer for Yahoo! Shine down this ungrammatical path? Does she think that the verbs read and lead are genetically related and that the past tense of lead is just like the past tense of read?

They’re not. The past tense of read (pronounced REED) is read (pronounced RED). The past tense of lead (pronounced LEED) is led (pronounced LED).

Get the lead out and head to a dictionary

At what age did you find yourself thrust into adulthood? Were you old enough to know that foisted isn’t the correct word here?

 

The writer of this article for Yahoo! Shine claims to be an adult, even though her writing can be a bit juvenile. Or perhaps its the rebellious spirit of a teen that compels her to ignore the niceties of spelling and grammar and other language-related stuff.

She loves her some capital letters, but unless she means some guy named Mac and his dog Cheese, these capital letters are wrong:

She’s fearless in her use of homophones, even if they’re wrong. And she’s a bit lazy when it comes to using a dictionary to figure out if Peter Pan should be capitalized:

Sometimes she throws out a collection of words that make sense only in her own mind:

More with capping. That word isn’t a proper noun and apostrophes aren’t quotation marks:

Nice try, but wrong. The abbreviation “STDs” is singular; the verb should be stands:

Again with the arbitrary capital letter. She loves to make Everything So Damned Important by capitalizing it. I can’t hardly wait until she learns how to look up movie titles online:

An expiration date doesn’t have a length; it’s a point in time. Maybe you meant: “before its expiration date.” And what the heck did she think “gets the Led out” means? It makes no sense, right? My advice to her: Get the lead out and head to a dictionary.

More typos and homophonic hilarity, too. And of course she just had to capitalize president, even though it doesn’t precede the man’s name. 

This young whippersnapper should just get the lead out and head for a dictionary. And maybe a class in writing.