wrote in message
...
Magic Mood Jeep wrote:

Falcons Quarterback Vick To Plead Guilty

I am sooooooooooooo glad you used the proper term "Plead" or (correct
spelling is "Pled")!!!!!

It burns me that even on NATIONAL NEWS programs they will say "pleaded"
for
the past tense of plead...huh? When did that become a word?

Well first, the headline in the above quote is not in the past tense.
So "pled" would be the wrong spelling for that usage. It says "Vick
*To Plead* Guilty" (my emphasis). That's an infinitive, and it should
be spelled "plead", so it's OK.

But your post made me curious about the past tense, so I looked it up
on dictionary.com. It turns out that both "pleaded" and "pled" are
correct for the past tense of "plead".

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plead

I've heard "pleaded" all my life, not just in the news or in conversation,
but in literature, too. It certainly sounds OK to me. (I think it might
be more common than "pled", although I've heard that too.)

The one that annoys me the most is "drug" being used as the past tense of
"drag". Eg, "I went to the shops and my husband drug along behind me". Of
all the bad grammar, thats the one I find most painful to my ears.

Yowie