LEAD Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to know your

verbs my name is Alicia and in this

episode we’re going to talk about the

verb lead let’s go let’s look at the

basic definition of this verb the basic

meaning of this verb is to control a

group of people examples I’ve been asked

to lead the meeting today do you think

he’ll do a good job leading the company

here are the conjugations of the verb

present lead leads past lead past

participle lead progressive leading

now let’s talk about some additional

meanings of this verb meaning one

so the first additional meaning for

today is to be first or to be winning

meaning to be in first place

example our team is leading by 10 points

at halftime the Brazilian team led by

two points so one point here so maybe

you can see from the example sentences

this is commonly used in sports so to

talk about a team or a person who is

winning at something some kind of

competition and when you want to talk

about the score or like the difference

between the team winning or the person

winning and the next person who is in

second place or who is losing we can use

by as the preposition before the score

or the time or whatever difference there

is between the winner and the loser or

the winner and the second-place person

so in the first example sentence I used

the expression leading by 10 points so

that means our team is winning is in the

winning position by 10 points so there’s

10 points difference between the winning

team and the losing team we see the same

thing in the second sentence in the

second sentence we saw the Brazilian

team led by 2 points so at the halftime

mark the Brazilian team led by 2 points

meaning they were 2 points higher or

they had two more points than the losing

team or the second-place team so we can

use the preposition by to explain the

difference there let’s go to the second

meaning for this verb the second meaning

is to cause someone to do something and

it’s often kind of in a negative way

examples of this he led me to believe I

would make a lot of money on this deal

you led me to think you were interested

in dating me so in these examples you

can think of the verb lead as meaning

caused here and it’s like you caused

someone to believe something that is not

true or you caused some kind of action

but it was not based on like reliable

information it was somehow an untrue

situation so there’s kind of the feeling

of

what’s the word deceived so there’s kind

of the feeling of being deceived here so

like you led me to believe or you led me

to think or you led me to I don’t know

something else let me to believe let me

to think led me to decide I suppose

something something like that but the

idea is that there’s some deceit

involved there’s some misinformation

it’s it it’s on purpose too so and this

is kind of a negative way to use this

verb and the reason that we use lead

instead of caused is because lead sounds

like the person who is giving the

information or the the object that is

providing information like has somehow

has control over the situation there’s

intention included there

so led me to believe is stronger than

caused me to believe because led me to

believe sounds like someone is actively

making an attempt to change your point

of view or to change your way of

thinking let’s go to the third meaning

then how the third meaning the third

meaning for this verb is to show someone

the way often in front of a group or in

front of someone else so examples of

this she led us to the conference room

they led us out of the building with

this meaning as you’ll see in the fourth

meaning we’ll talk about in just a

moment we can use a series of

prepositions so we’re talking about

showing someone the way to something

therefore we’re moving so we can use

prepositions of movement to explain that

movement so I said Lecky led us to the

conference room so meaning to a

destination we use the preposition to or

they led us out of the building so out

of the building so leaving a place we

could say into they led us next to

toward so we can use these prepositions

of movement to talk about the way so the

direction in which someone leads us so

shows us the way to a location let’s

look at the fourth meaning so the fourth

meaning is to go toward something to go

towards something so this means a person

is not

writing but rather it’s like a path or a

road or there’s some other kind of sign

or symbol that’s moving in a direction

or there’s like some kind of indication

of like movement in in like a path or

road way so examples of this this

highway leads to Los Angeles a trail of

crumbs led into the kitchen alright so

so here you can see too even though it’s

not a person leading someone else

there’s still some kind of movement

suggested so we use these same

prepositions of movement to talk about

the situation so like a trail of crumbs

led into the kitchen meaning a trail of

crumbs went from one area into the

kitchen so we can sort of see there’s

some movement going into the kitchen in

this example sentence or this road leads

toward Los Angeles so in the direction

of Los Angeles so we can use these

directional words along with lead in

this case to show where something is

going

let’s look at some variations of the

verb lead the first one is to lead

someone on to lead someone on so to lead

someone on means to cause someone to

believe you’re romantically interested

in them he led me on for three months

he just wanted information about my

company we see kind of negative

situations or negative expressions along

with to lead someone on so leading

someone on means you’re behaving in a

way that makes another person feel

you’re romantically attracted to them

however you’re not so there’s usually

some other motivation there’s some other

goals he led me on for three months his

goal is actually to get information

about the company but he in the sentence

makes the speaker I think he is

romantically attracted to the speaker so

that’s sort of like a way of getting

information that he wants so he’s not

actually romantically attracted he just

wants this information and is using this

person to get it so we say to lead

someone on to make someone think they’re

romantically attracted but they’re

actually not maybe they want some other

benefit from you the next variation is

to lead with to lead with something so

to lead with something means to place

like the most important information or

the most interesting information first

so we use this a lot in like newspapers

or news reports or magazines so leading

with something leading with the most

important information examples the New

York Times led with a story about the

president tonight the news is leading

with a story about a terrible accident

downtown so in each of these the

implication the idea is that the most

important story in these example

sentences is the first story so in the

first example the New York Times is

leading with a story about the president

so leading with means the New York Times

thinks this is the most important story

it’s about the president they’re

starting their publication with the

story about the president in the second

example sentence it’s about the news so

probably TV news so the TV news is

leading with a story about a terrible

accident in

case that means they think that’s the

most important story or the most

interesting story at that time so to

lead with something for a publication or

a media outlet means to put the most

interesting or important information

first okay so that’s everything for this

lesson I hope that you picked up some

new meanings of the verb lead and a few

variations maybe if you have any

questions if you know some other ways to

use the verb lead or if you just want to

try to make a sentence please feel free

to do so in the comment section of

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thanks very much for watching this

episode of know your verbs and we’ll see

you again soon

bye I will lead you to the verb lead

leaving see that this is what I mean so

here as you’ll see also as melilla do

you think he little bit

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