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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

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Pled vs plead
Guest
1
2010/11/27 - 4:26pm

These seem interchangeable in press and legal sense…….when do you use which??? PLED vs PLEAD

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
(Offline)
2
2010/11/27 - 5:28pm

For me, pled is the past tense of plead:

Your Honor, I plead not guilty.

Yesterday, when I was before the judge, I pled not guilty.

Emmett

P.S. I have never actually given a plea before a judge (I mailed in my speeding ticket).

torpeau
Left coast of FL
97 Posts
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3
2010/11/27 - 5:30pm

Either pled or pleaded can be used as the past tense of plead.

Guest
4
2010/11/28 - 12:19am

My ruling (were anyone to ask me) would be that any newspaper that uses "pled" as an alternative present tense of "plead" has committed either a typo (simply dropping the 'a', accidentally) or a grammatical error. In charity I assume the former.

Guest
5
2010/12/07 - 9:51pm

torpeau said:

Either pled or pleaded can be used as the past tense of plead.


What torpeau says here is entirely correct. I'll offer a few things in elaboration you didn't necessarily need. First, pleaded is the most common form I've seen, and the authorities seem to back me up on that. But, second, pled is not wrong, and, apparently, plead (rhymes with pled) has also had acceptance in writing. (I gather this point from Garner's Modern American Usage.) However, I would personally not use plead in the past tense, mostly because it seems nonstandard and so likely to cause confusion in the audience. Finally, whether you use pleaded or pled (or, I suppose, plead), I encourage consistency in your discrete writings. I sometimes change them up from paper to paper, just for kicks, but alternating in a single piece is probably ill-advised.

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