Formas del verbo
Forma base
/liːd/
Past Simple
/led/
Past Participle
/led/
Frases de ejemplo
Forma base · lead
- This path leads directly to the village.
Past Simple · led
- She led the team to victory last season.
- Did you lead it before lunch?
- I led it as soon as I possibly could.
- We led it together earlier this week.
Past Participle · led
- His research has led to several important discoveries.
- She has just led the very same thing.
- By the time we arrived, they had led everything.
- We have never led anything quite like it.
Colocaciones comunes
lead the way
to go first and guide others
lead to
to result in something
Tiempos clave
| Presente Simple | Pasado Simple | Presente Perfecto |
|---|---|---|
I lead he / she / it leads | I led | I have led |
| Presente Continuo:I am leading · he / she / it is leading | ||
Guía gramatical
The verb "lead" follows the ABB pattern: the past simple and past participle share one form ("led"), while the base form ("lead") is different. ABB is the most common pattern among English irregular verbs — roughly half of all irregulars fall here, so mastering this group pays dividends across the whole language.
Use the past simple "led" to talk about a completed action or event at a definite moment in the past. It stands alone as the main verb — no auxiliary is needed. Common accompanying time expressions include yesterday, last week, ago, and when: "She led the whole report by herself." The action is seen as finished and anchored to a specific past time.
The past participle "led" always works together with an auxiliary verb. It appears in: (1) the present perfect with have/has — "I have led this several times before"; (2) the past perfect with had — "By the time we called, they had already led"; (3) passive voice — "The decision was led by the board." Never use "led" as a standalone past-tense verb without an auxiliary.
Memory tip: because "led" and "led" are the same, you only need to memorise one past form. Many ABB verbs follow recognisable sound shifts — a large group ends in -ought (bring→brought, buy→bought, catch→caught, fight→fought, seek→sought, teach→taught, think→thought), and another group shows a vowel shift plus -t (feel→felt, keep→kept, leave→left, mean→meant, sleep→slept). Identifying which sub-group "lead" belongs to can make the form easier to remember long-term.
Mini test
¿Qué oración es correcta?
Patrón de conjugación
El pasado simple y el participio pasado comparten la misma forma.