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At least Americans do. Drives me crazy. Can't they even try saying it out loud?

In terms of pet peeves, loose for lose comes between it's for its (surely the most annoying of all) and lead for led (which I'm now seeing even on supposedly edited sites like HuffPo and Salon).

by Matt in NYC on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 12:15:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I used to write "lead" as the past tense of "lead".  I don't know where I got the idea from.  I thought "led" was american.  But there's no way of reading "lead" as a verb without hearing the "ee".  He lead them up to the top of the hill...

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 04:32:28 PM EST
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Well, it works with "read", why shouldn't it work with "lead"?

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 05:34:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Good question.

I think it must be to do with other uses of the word.

A dog lead

I lead him away.

A good read.

I read it at work.

Hmmm.  Maybe "lead" has more "ee" uses, so the brain sees "lead" and hears "leed"?  But then, what about "lead" weights?  It was made of lead.

A conundrum wrapped in an enigma...until someone solves it.

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 06:11:24 PM EST
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I'm more annoyed by your/you're, thewir/they're. Their is two/too two...

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 05:44:35 PM EST
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all the time.  I catch myself just firing away and not proof reading and do it from time to time myself.

It's a little hard on the eyes but it beats spending the extra time proofing.

by HiD on Tue Mar 27th, 2007 at 07:26:37 AM EST
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As maybe Migeru hinted at it upthread, some errors are more apparent to native speakers and others more apparent to non-native speakers -- I guess this is a case of the latter.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Tue Mar 27th, 2007 at 10:00:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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