"Text" or "texted" for past tense?

[peacefuleasyfeeling]

I have seen and heard the word "text" , as in "to send a text message / SMS" used as past tense quite a few times recently:
"So yesterday, he text me to say..."
"She text me last week and I..."
I have always assumed that it should be "texted", but the frequency with which this is popping up suggests "text" as both past and present tense is common parlance.
Am I just an out of touch fuddy-duddy?

[ThereIsIron]

Past tense of text is "taxt"

[GriefLeavesItsMark]

I'm still coming to terms with text bring used as a verb.

[GrizzlebertGrumbledink]

Sent a text, it's a noun not a verb.

But I do say text even though I know it's wrong

[YokoUhOh]

Past tense = texted. 'I text her' sounds present tense to me. Or you could just say 'sent a text', which is probably more correct.

[RedButtonhole]

Never mind that, what about when people say "text-ses" instead of "texts" as the plural?

[AlfAlf]

I agree with Yoko. It should be texted, or even better 'sent a text'.
I'm not very pedantic, but it's one that irritates me. I should get a life.

[DadDadDad]

Grizzle and others - what makes you think it's wrong to use text as verb? It might have started as a noun, but English has a long history of nouns being verbed. The verb to text is useful, its meaning clear (in the context of modern tech), and less of a mouthful than "send a text".

My feeling is that the past tense should be "texted", but when people are talking or typing quickly, "text" sounds like "flexed" or "vexed" - that ending "ext" sound fooling the brain that it is past tense. Also, "texted" is a bit awkward to say.

[tribpot]

Texted. I accept that 'text' does sound a bit past-tensey and (according to Wiktionary at least) it does come from the perfect passive participle of texo (to weave) but it isn't. Hence texted. 'I text her' sounds like you don't know what a past tense is.

[peacefuleasyfeeling]

Ah, thanks for your responses, everyone. I'll carry on as I was then

[JasperDamerel]

Texted is correct, but text is creeping in and if it continues to do so will probably take over as the standard form.

[DadDadDad]

Well there are other verbs where the present and past are the same (I can only think of 'put' and 'set' off the top of my head but I'm sure there are others), and we seem to cope.

[CuttedUpPear]

TextED

I hate text used as past tense. Makes me stabby.

[DadDadDad]

Ha! Your username just reminded me of another verb where present and past tense are the same: 'cut'

Are there any examples, I wonder where the last letter is not a 't'? (Completely amateur linguist suggestion that maybe that 't' sound at the end of the verb is close enough to the 'd' sound that the brain accepts it as a past tense).

[prism]

"read" and "spread". I think all the others end in T.

[DadDadDad]

Yes, after making my comment, the top Google search threw up this list, which agreed with my (undoubtedly unoriginal) theory, so I was quite pleased with that!

jakubmarian.com/english-verbs-that-are-the-same-in-the-present-tense-and-the-past-tense/

[NameChange30]

This bothers me too. "Text" sounds wrong but "texted" sounds clunky. I try and avoid it and say "sent a text" if I can!

[ThenLaterWhenItGotDark]

It's s general view that neologisms should be regular, both grammatically and phonologically. So: text= texted. It's more likely for irregular verbs to become regular through time, rather than the opposite.

[MotherOfFlagons]

'I text her' makes me cross. I prefer 'I texted her'.

[DadDadDad]

ThenLater - I don't know where should comes into it. It's probably the case that neologisms do inflect regularly, because no-one will have heard any irregular inflection, but that's an empirical observation not a decree from some imagined grammar police.

Mother - this is where I part company. I think "texted" is more consistent, but I don't get cross about it - why? I find it fascinating that the rule ThenLater identifies is interfered with (in the speaker's mind) by another rule (discussed earlier) that many verbs ending in t do not inflect.

[KoalaDownUnder]

Texted!

I can't stand 'text' used as a past tense verb. Drives me nuts.

[ThenLaterWhenItGotDark]

Of course it's an empirical observation. By socio-historic linguists. That's why I said "should" as opposed to "have to".

[ThenLaterWhenItGotDark]

I don't normally link to wiki (as any Tom, Dick or Harriet could have written it!) but this is quite a succinct historical linguistic explanation of why some verbs do, and some don't (do whatever it is we expect them to do...)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_irregular_verbs

[Hullygully]

texted texted texted texted texted texted TEXTED TEXFUCKINGTED

[DadDadDad]

ThenLater - thanks for the explanation.

(I'm still not sure the way you used "should" can be read as implying a generalisation of empirical observation, along the lines of "can usually be expected to". It reads more as "it is right to", as if the "general view" has been handed down by those who consider themselves an authority. So thanks for clarifying what you thought you meant ).

[MotherOfFlagons]

DadDad Perhaps I should have added a smiley. I don't actually get cross because it would be a waste of my energy, but it does grate on me.