Leeds is a large city in the north of England, in the county of West Yorkshire, about three hours by train north of London. It grew rich in the nineteenth century on wool and cloth — the mills and the canal made it one of the engines of the industrial north — and when that industry died it turned itself into a centre for banking, law and offices, which is what it mostly is now. It also has two big universities, and a very large student population is why it has a reputation for nightlife, music and clubs. For English learners a few practical points matter more than the history. First, the spelling: Leeds always ends in -s, and that -s is part of the name, not a plural. It takes a singular verb — 'Leeds is in Yorkshire', never 'Leeds are in Yorkshire'. The one exception is football: British people treat a team name as plural, so 'Leeds are playing at home' means Leeds United, the football club, and that is completely normal English. Second, people from Leeds are called Loiners, an unusual word tied to the city's old name, but most people, including many British people, will not know it. Third, the accent: Leeds is Yorkshire, and the Yorkshire accent is one of the most recognisable in England — short a in 'bath', and 'the' often shrunk to a single sound. Do not confuse Leeds with Leeds Castle, which is a famous castle hundreds of kilometres away in Kent, in the south-east, and has nothing to do with the city.