Tried to explain this myself, but got confused, so I found the info below from this site:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~...
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Another easily confused pair of words — easily confused because of different and overlapping pronunciations in different situations. Here's what you need to know:
The verb in the present tense (or the infinitive) meaning "to go before" or "to conduct" ("With 85% of the votes counted, Smith leads by a wide margin"; "I promise to lead a good life") is spelled lead and pronounced leed.
The same verb in the past tense ("With 85% of the votes counted, Smith led by a wide margin"; "He led a good life") is spelled led and pronounced led.
The noun meaning "first place" ("She took the lead in the race"), "the biggest part in a play" ("He was angry when his brother got the lead in the school play"), "a leash" ("Keep your dog on a lead"), and "an electrical conductor" ("Connect the lead to the battery") is spelled lead and pronounced leed.
The noun meaning "the soft, heavy metal used to make bullets" is spelled lead and pronounced led.
Got that? The only tricky one is the second: the past tense of the verb to lead is spelled led, not lead.
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