What do you use for the past tense of "to text"?

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Why on earth would it be "text" not "texted"? As in "He text his friend" instead of "he texted his friend".

I know there are bigger issues but what the heck?

We do have irregular verbs, but they're usually old words that can be traced back to a time when English didn't really exist. (cf weak and strong verbs in German.) New words tend to follow regular forms - which would be texted.

Cross post with @nyancatdays there!

It’s quite common in English to form new verbs out of nouns, it happens all the time, but they do then tend to follow regular patterns.

Think of “cycle” - first there was the “bicycle”; then the “cycle”, and then people made it into a verb so that you can say “to cycle” - I cycle, you cycle, etc. But you say “I cycled to the park” for the past form.

I’ve always thought of it as an irregular verb so I’m a ‘text’ past tense user.

Although I think it is a reaction from a former colleague who used to say ‘texteded’ so I’ve probably gone too far in the other direction. She was very ‘pacific’ in her pronunciation of texteded too.

Text if I'm speaking, texted if I'm writing.
Also, in writing I would say I wrote a text but if I was speaking I would say I writ a text.
There are lots of words people use differently in spoken conversation.

I tend to use texted, but I feel those that use text are thinking along the same lines of learnt or dreamt. The last T making it past tense.

Texted.
And, of course, cutted up.

I like to read a book.
i will read a book.
i just read a book.

i like to text my friend.
i will text my friend.
i just text my friend.

There's nothing about "to text" that makes me think it is in any way an irregular verb.

No, cycle came first, from Greek and Latin, via French. The bi- prefix only got added in the 19th century, and inherited all the patterns of cycle.

It's true that we often make verbs from bouns though.

Texted for me too.

The dog shat on the rug.

Text.

When I read or hear "texted" it makes me shudder, it sounds ridiculous in my opinion.

Also I think text just sounds like it’s correct.

I swept the floor, I kept the light on and I text my friend.

Texted looks correct written down but sounds clunky out loud.

It's texted.
(and a regular verb)

Same! I also feel that it's a very elder millennial thing.

It's 'texted'. TEXTED TEXTED TEXTED. The past tense of the verb 'to text'.

When people write "yesterday my husband text me" I just feel pure rage.

Would you say "Last week I go on holiday", or ""My brother talk to his boss yesterday", or "On Tuesday my daughter paint a lovely picture at school"???
No you bloody wouldn't, unless English was your second language.

Text is a noun that has now also become a verb. So treat it with respect and use the past tense when talking about the past!

Texted.

My SIL says she will tex, like “I will tex you tomorrow”. Dear God!!!!

Perfect sense to me.

I sent a text
He sent a text
Just avoid using text as a verb in the past tense

It’s not quite the same verb, though - it helps that there’s a pre-existing verb form meaning something different, eg. “to go through circular patterns”; but actually when the bicycle was invented you would actually say “I bicycled” - eg. “He bicycled to the station”, so it’s a contraction of that. Similarly, you could in the 1920s perfectly well say “I motored to the station” or “he motored around the valleys” (now a quaint or old-fashioned form but still perfectly legitimate!)

Ditto more recently “I scootered”, “I rollerbladed”, etc.

I or he send or sent a text. He texted me.

I think a lot of people genuinely believe that the verb is 'to tex' and therefore the past tense is 'I texed'.

Probably a large crossover with the people who somehow think that 'to of' is a verb, coincidentally meaning exactly the same as the 'boring' old verb 'to have' actually means.

I would say 'I text James' and not 'I texted James', but I'm not claiming that I'm right. I also struggle with screenshot and would say 'I screenshot' because I used to say screenshooted 🤣.

The more I read text through this thread meant I struggled to write this because I forgot what text was.

Taxt