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The sneaky misstep: why "had mislead" leads us astray

Reviewed and edited by

Lloyd Cooper 02/10/2024, 19:45

English.me team member

What kind of error is it?

Had mislead or had misled. What's correct?

It's a verb tense error related to the misuse of the past participle form of the verb "mislead". The correct past participle is "misled", not "mislead".

Why do people make this mistake?

People might make this error because "lead" and "read" in their present tenses change to "led" and "read" for both their past and past participle forms, respectively, which can be confusing. The similarity in sound between "mislead" (pronounced "mis-leed") and "misled" (pronounced "miz-led") might also contribute to the mistake.

What is correct?

The correct past participle form of "mislead" is "misled". Therefore, the correct phrase is "had misled".

Examples of correct usage

She realized that the advertisement had misled her.
He had misled the team with false information.
They claimed the map had misled them during the hike.

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