The "text" "texted" debate.

[ICameOnTheJitney]

Having just insisted that there IS such a word as "texted" I have now decided there is not. I am sick though of hearing "I text Jane yesterday and she said blah de blah"

I realised just a minute ago that it is neither...it's "I sent Jane a text" In the same way as "I sent Jane a parcel" or "I sent Tom a letter"

There can BE no "text" or "texted" you can't "parcel" someone and I'm not "Lettering" anyone.

There. AIBU?

Texted is fine by me.

AlbertGiordino, I think I might love you.

My colleagues won't, next time one of them says "I text him yesterday," but they should be used to me going into lengthy grammatical explanations when I am at my most patronising they get it wrong yet again.

I have no problem with text as a verb. It's one of the riches of the English language that it grows with that sort of development (I treasure the use in P G Wodehouse books of "ankling" to mean walking).

But any new verb formation has to be regular, and therefore has to use the regular past tense. Therefore the past tense of "text" is, without any doubt at all, "texted".

Texted, obviously. Thank you for this thread- confirmed that I have been right all along.