OK, finally to the post itself. While I like pled, etymologically speaking, it should be pleaded. Why? Because it is yet another Latinate from French and, typically, imported verbs or verbs made from imported nouns are weak verbs. However, this was made to fit a strong verb pattern likely do to the sound as others have pointed out. So, both past tenses are valid and correct. I like pled and will stick to it.

There is another imported French Latinate that also has an alternate strong ending ... prove ... The past participle can be proved or proven. I prefer proven but both are correct.

@In Fact ... What about need and ned, heed and hed, seed and sed?

Here is why they aren't strong verbs with with a vowel change and don't follow the pattern ...

Heed ... OE hedan, WEAK verb ... even in OE! And as you can see, it only had one 'e' to start with. Ic hede ... short 'e' sound as in red. So as you might guess, the past tense was 'ic hedede' (heeded).

Need and seed were nouns in OE. The verbs were from them ... Thus, they are week verbs.

@Alice ... Let me consult my medium circa materiam ... Hmmmm, she's says that treating media as a collective noun has been around since the 1920s and that it and data both can take a singular verb.

The general rule of thumb is that once a loanword is taken into a language then that language can, and usually does, treat it according to its own grammar rules and usage. It may be plural in Latin but it can be used as a collective noun in English. We do the opposite with information. In English it is a singular noun with no plural (we don't say informations) ... We took it from French ... and there is a plural in French!

@JusticeJim ... Pet peeve alert! ... "All but myself and one other Justice have never stepped foot in a criminal courtroom..." Hold out your hand and let me slap it! "Myself" is wrong, no matter which way you look at it ... and you need commas to clarify. Here's a quick webpage on reflexive pronouns: http://grammartips.homestead.com/self.html

I think you win! Think to isn't even in the debate in the BBC answer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1535_questionanswer/page6.shtml

Wanted: teacher with a background of at least ten years ...

Or, if you'r willing to accept the Greek root of history ... with a history of at least ten years.

I found a downloadable copy of Cheke's "Gospel of Matthews", I'v only redd a bit but it is easy to understand once yu ar used to the spelling!

@Ængelfolc ... Yu seem to hav better etymological sources than me ... Here is what I found for "stop":

stop (v.)
O.E. -stoppian (in forstoppian "to stop up, stifle"), along with M.L.G. stoppen, O.H.G. stopfon (Ger. stopfen) a W.Gmc. borrowing from V.L. *stuppare "to stop or stuff with tow or oakum" (cf. It. stoppare, Fr. étouper "to stop with tow"), from L. stuppa "coarse part of flax, tow." Plugs made of tow were used from ancient times in Rhine valley.

BTW, stopfon is listed as the root word for "stuff" (German Stoff) which comes to English thru French ... It may have entered French thru stopfon ... but then the source puts stopfon as from vulgar Latin.

***Now I would think that vulgar Latin along the Rhine would betoken that the Romans picked it up from the Teutons/Germans rather than the Germans picked it up from the Romans.

Similar with the meaning of "tale" as number (German Zahl; OE tæl).

But yet, under tally, there is this: mid-15c., "stick marked with notches to indicate amount owed or paid," from Anglo-Fr. tallie (early 14c.), Anglo-L. talea (late 12c.), from M.L. tallia, from L. talea "a cutting, rod, stick"

The Anglo-L in the late 12c is clearly post-Norman yet "tæl" shows up in several kennings in OE so it had to be there pre-Norman and it isn't listed as Latin in the sources that I'v read. The Anglo-Saxons came after the Romans left Britain ... so who took it from whom? What is the root of Zahl? If you have a source I'll pass it along.

@jayles ... We all know that, in truth, we cannot pull out all the Latinates. We're not living on small, iland with a small tale of folks like Iceland. As I said before, I find some Latinates to be "fornytlic" (very useful). My goal isn't to pull them out but to shove them aside.

It is sad that the OE wordstock was shoved to the wayside to make room for the Latinates or Greek-root words. We didn't need 'astronomy' when we already had 'starcraft'. That's an OE word that the folk would probably know. But in the long run, other OE words would need to brought back ... slowly ... but the unbrooked OE wordstock is rich!

In gainsaying (there's an old word still in the wordbook!), yet another inrush (another word in the wordbook) of inkhorn words in the 1800s, William Barnes struck the word 'starlore' for astronomy, 'speechcraft' for grammar, and birdlore for ornithology which all sound OK to me. Sir John Cheke wrote the gospel of Matthew without Latinates. I'm trying to find it. I'd like to read it.

As for experience ... What is experience but skill, knowledge, or wisdom? A bad experience is an ordeal. A good experience could be a bliss. As a verb ... when you experience something, you go thru it; meet it; undergo ... and you learn. And experienced man might be learned or skilled or both!

"Bad writers, and especially scientific, political, and sociological writers, are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones, and unnecessary words like expedite, ameliorate, predict, extraneous, deracinated, clandestine, subaqueous, and hundreds of others constantly gain ground from their Anglo-Saxon numbers." George Orwell "Politics and the English Language" (1946)

@Jayles ... It's odd that it is England that has dropped 'gotten' for 'got' and seems to be dropping the subjective more often (and faster) than the US. The good thing about the less use of the subjunctive in English is that it is, more often than not, easier to explain to an outlander because the fremd tung uses it more often!

Spanish drives me nuts because it uses it more often ... the verb itself changes and sometimes a lot ... especially the stem changing verbs.

I only have a few pet peeves and one of them is the incorrect use of the reflexive pronoun when a someone THINKS it is the correct way and is overcorrecting ... Send an email to John or myself ... arggghhhh! I had a director once send out an email that was soooo bad grammatically that I printed it out; corrected it; and took it to his secretary. She shook her head and said she hadn't sent but that he had done it himself. So sad that someone that high up could butcher a simple email so badly.