Grammar and spelling pedants this way

[StealthPolarBear]

I'll add a 'please' for the polite police :)
What is the difference between'lead' and 'led'? Is 'lead the present tense and led the past?
Obviously not talking about Pb

lead/led/led (present - past - past participle)
Why do you ask?

Because I never know and keep meaning to check.
So "I was lead away in handcuffs" would be wrong?
Asking for a friend...

Do Americans use it the same way? It's not like me to be this confused, but it's definitely possible.

yes it would be 'led away'.
I just noticed a thread title about 'baby lead weaning' and wondered if it was about that.

Lead is pronounced Leed in this context.

Lead piping however is pronounced ledd.

Confused yet?

I love English!

You say them differently too. Lead (as in the metal) is pronounced the same as led but lead (as in to lead someone) is pronounced leed

That's it isn't it, it's the pronunciation that's confused me.
No I wrote something about being lead away at an airport o another thread

That would have been led, not lead, then

Hopefully I will remember this . Thank you everyone.
There was another one but I can't remember. Grr.

English is so confusing. Lead (leed) and led but read (reed) and read (red)

Can I throw mine in whilst you’re trying to remember, Stealth?

I always get muddled with the following:

1. Affect and effect
2. Practise and practice
3. Licence and license
4. Principal and principle

Would love an easy way to remember which to use if anyone has the time to help...

Or I could bugger off and start my own thread to be less of a thread hog, of course

Can you hear the difference in advice (noun) and advise (verb)? Practice and practise are the same logic.

Scrumpy I always think of 'the Crocodile Smiles' to remember practice/practise - the 'c' spelling is the noun (like crocodile) and the 's' spelling is the verb (like smiles)

Affect and effect are both both nouns and verbs

Don't start your own thread. This is a nice one, would be good to continue it

Same would work actually for advice/advise, come to think of it Stealth

I always hear 'advise' with a longer 'i' sound (to rhyme with rise) and 'advice' to rhyme with slice...

Exactly. You can relly hearth difference with those. And it's the same spelling for practice /practise

Synec I like that, I have always been confused with practice / practise as well

Baby led?

All my typos are my phone I promise

I can help a bit with "ice" and "ise"

Advice - noun - let me give you some advice
Advise - verb - I would strongly advise you not to do that!

Licence - noun - a driving licence is a document permitting me to drive
License - verb - 007 - licensed to kill

Scrump hopefully this explanation will make sense to you!

Affect vs effect

Affect - verb - (To have an effect on) eg: Getting a degree will affect my employment prospects
Effect - noun - (The consequence of an action/other cause) eg: Getting therapy had a positive effect on my mental health.

Apologies for the somewhat poor examples, I'm very tired today!

PlainVanilla There are exceptions:

Parliament effected the change.

An affect is a subjective feeling experienced in response to a thought or other stimulus; mood, emotion, especially as demonstrated in external physical signs,

Thank you all and thank you Stealth for both answering and letting me join your thread

Advise/advice and crocodile smiles are brilliant ways to remember the difference between practise and practice. I think that’s helped it settle in my mind now

License/licence - could I say I am licensed to drive once I get my licence? Is that right?

I think I get affect/effect but will probably still get sheepish whenever it comes to using it in a sentence. It’s odd because I can spot when someone else has used it incorrectly but when it comes to writing it myself, I’ll shy away from it in case I get it wrong.

In general, you'd always use 'effect' after 'the'. Two es together.
There are some exceptions where effect is a verb and affect a noun but they are rare.