Beat the High Flying Graduates - Spot the Error

This sentence outsmarted a whole roomful of graduates most of whom had English as a native language - can you do better?

Look at the sentence below and spot the error.  I am not talking about choices (such as: you could put a comma here or leave a word out there). This is a case of wrongly used English.

The consultation has lead to a decision to divide the group into three separate units: marketing, design and technology, and finance.

If you spot the error confidently, well done.  You have a sharp eye and a good command of the English language.  If you are unsure, you seem to be in good company.  The graduates I am speaking about have a fast-track job working for a large consultancy and have to write business reports all the time.  This is apparently an easy mistake to make and a hard one to spot.

I will tweet the answer (twitter account Janepenson) on Wednesday 21 April at 10.05 am.

Post your solution here or tweet me direct.  If you get it right I will tell the world.  If not, I'll tell just you.

Comments

• Hello Jane, I think it’s the word ‘lead’ - it should be spelt ‘led’. W
  ps, nice touch to get people involved!

  By Walter Blackburn on 2010 04 20

• The decision from the consultation is to divide the group into the following three separate units; marketing, finance and, design and technology.

  By Lyn Bainbridge on 2010 04 21

• The obvious mistake is the word lead should be led.

  By Ray Duncan on 2010 04 21

• Thank you for your contributions. 

  The right answer was indeed that ‘lead’ should have been ‘led’.  The past tense of the verb to lead is ‘led’ whereas ‘lead’ pronounced to rhyme with ‘bed’ is heavy metal.

  Well done to those who spotted that one.  I am beginning to think they are better at English in New Zealand than we are in Britain.

  By GTG on 2010 04 21

• ‘This sentence outsmarted a whole roomful of graduates most of whom had English as a native language - can you do better?’

  I know that the above sentence wasn’t the one you meant, but - in the spirit of ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ - I’d have considered inserting a comma after the word ‘graduates’.

  Julia,
  I agree that your comma would be well placed.  Interesting that you noticed that - I usually find that I add commas where others wouldn’t have.
  Thanks for your comment.  G2G

  By Julia Milton on 2010 05 05

• Clearly the verb should be ‘led’ not ‘lead’ which is a metal. However, I did have to read it twice to pick this up.
  John
  Thank you for your response.  It is interesting how difficult that one is to spot - probably because it sounds right when you read it aloud in your head. G2G

  By john stuart on 2010 05 23

• Passive voice.

  By David Scillitoe on 2010 05 24

• Change ‘lead’ to ‘led’.

  By Claire Hooper on 2010 06 03

• no E in error

  By guy caulkett on 2010 06 21

• it says three but gives four

  By guy caulkett on 2010 08 29

• wpewoaja http://xxedatby.com pibmcmrb suglxvrz ifsovakk amyvhcbx

  By dynhcevx on 2010 09 12