Recently, there have been a lot of articles about people who pleaded guilty to this or that crime. This came as a bit of a shock to me, because I’m a careful reader, and I just assumed that they pled guilty. You know me: the practical pedant. And this issue is very clear. Either of these constructions are okay.

How do I know? Well, as always, I checked Fowler. He thinks “pled” is an American thing. He appears to be wrong, but the fact that he doesn’t make a big deal out of the issue should tell you something; Fowler had no problem making a fuss when he thought it was right. So I checked my favorite grammar sources, The Grammar Bible and Clean, Well-Lighted Sentences. They don’t even mention the issue. And the Merriam-Webster dictionary? They not only mention “pled,” they offer “plead” as well!

Let me go further: why are we still using “pleaded”? The only words that are much like it are “lead” and “read.” And both conjugate the same way. There is no reason to hang on to this archaic usage. So “pleaded” is on notice around here. You won’t be seeing it. Except, of course, here: