I tend to use "plead" (also spelled "pled",) but I don't think there's a "right" version. They're both listed. And since it's not an Old English word, but crept into Middle English via French, my studies of Old English tell me that my instinct to use "pled" is wrong, since it can't possibly be a "strong" verb. (The strong verbs in Old English are the ones that change their internal vowels to change tense, while the weak verbs are the ones that take simple suffixes like -ed. Any late borrowing into English should be weak.)
According to this, 'pled' was used by the Scots while the rest of the English-speakers used 'pleaded'. Some more poking around indicates that it might have become popular because of its similarity to 'lead'/'led', 'read'/'read', 'feed'/'fed', etc.
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I tend to use "plead" (also spelled "pled",) but I don't think there's a "right" version. They're both listed. And since it's not an Old English word, but crept into Middle English via French, my studies of Old English tell me that my instinct to use "pled" is wrong, since it can't possibly be a "strong" verb. (The strong verbs in Old English are the ones that change their internal vowels to change tense, while the weak verbs are the ones that take simple suffixes like -ed. Any late borrowing into English should be weak.)
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