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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