Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse people. I have found the following to be among them:
LEAD / LED
These words are confusing because lead (pronounced leed) is the present tense of the verb to lead, and led serves as the past tense and past participle of that same verb. The noun lead (pronounced led, just like the verb led) is the name of a metallic element. So, the written word spelled l-e-a-d has two different pronunciations and two very different meanings. The words lead and led, on the other hand, when pronounced differently, have the same root word with only temporal differences in meaning: lead is happening now while led happened in the past (or, less often, in the future, as in I will have led the tour for three years this coming September).
INCORRECT: Yesterday I lead the afternoon tour at the museum.
CORRECT: Yesterday I led the afternoon tour at the museum.
CORRECT: I have led the museum tour for the past two years.
ALSO CORRECT: Today and every Friday I lead the band in practice at 4:00 pm.
ALSO CORRECT: The atomic number of the heavy metal lead (Pb on the periodic table) is 82.
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