Lead/led

The past tense of lead is not lead. It’s led.

                 ✖ She lead the winning team.
                 ✔ She led the winning team.

Why is it a problem?

There are two likely reasons why people misspell led: 

• They may assume that lead follows the same rule as read. When you sound them out they rhyme – in the present tense and the past tense. So it’s understandable to think they would be spelt the same way. But as happens in English, it’s not so simple: 

Present (sounds the same, spelt the same): I read/I lead
Past (sounds the same, spelt differently): he read/he led

               ✔ Last year I read four novels. 
               ✔ Last year I led our singing group.

•  Another explanation could be that the word for lead, the heavy metal, sounds the same as the past tense, led. If you’re not a big reader, you could assume from the sound that the past tense is also spelt the same way, but it’s not: 

               ✔ The pipe was made of lead.
               ✔ The water led him to the leaking pipe.