Brain Cloud

So, there has to be something wrong with me, right? Some kind of learning disability or old brain tumor or something. I just went back and read most of these posts. Ok, so my tenses are a little confused recently, and that’s mostly because the voices of authors I’m reading right now are unfortunately seeping in.

No, what I want to apologize for is my spelling. Most specifically this (which I just found out. Seriously. I didn’t realize this until just now):

Lead is the present tense of the verb. Pronounced with a long ‘e’. As in “Mark leads the climb.”

Led is the past tense. Pronounced with a short ‘e’. As in “I led the climb for the 18th time and I still fell at the third bolt.” For years now, I’ve been pronouncing it correctly but spelling it the same as above. Shoot. What was I thinking?

Ah ha! Yes, if you read all the way to the bottom of the dictionary entry, “Lead” can be pronounced with a short ‘e’ as in the metal. As in “I sucked on that paint brush until my teeth fell out from lead poisoning.” So, not crazy. Just didn’t quite have the connections right in that spelling part of the brain.