To wish people wouldn't write 'text' when they mean 'texted'?

[SadAboutTheBoy]

Sorry, but it makes my teeth itch.

My sister text me to say she was late

I text the other mum to tell her..

He text me to tell me it was over..

It's texted FFS!

(And it's packed lunch, not 'pack' lunch BTW)

Yeah it IS 'I texted' you - not 'I text you.' If it is a past tense, it's TEXTED

But what about, for example, 'I let him go'?

'I let him go out with his friends every day.'

'I let him go out with his friends yesterday.'

Sometimes the past and present tense are the same.

hesterton It's not the same pronunciation rule though.

If something ends in t or d, we typically pronounce the -ed with the vowel sound. eg landed, planted, wilted, plotted.

If something ends in 'ch', we pronounce -ed as 't' eg fetched, latched, botched.

I can't think of any other example of t or d ending vowels that we pronounce without adding the vowel sound (but I am not thinking that hard tbh.)

*But what about, for example, 'I let him go'?

'I let him go out with his friends every day.'

'I let him go out with his friends yesterday.'*

That's different. Let is the past participle. Text isn't. Texted is.

That's different. Let is the past participle. Text isn't. Texted is.

"Let" would have evolved as an irregular past participle, like all language. If "let" can do this, why not "text"?

myother

'Text' in the sense of it being a verb is a relatively new word. There are often periods of change with new words while we decide how to use them 'correctly'.

Texted follows the rules visually but when you say it, it sounds so clumsy and more like errors such as bidded and cutted. So maybe it's about how you access your words in your head and whether you first heard it or wrote it most.

Hmm, I don't know, for me, it really isn't hard to pronounce, but I am Scottish and I think we pronounce our t's and d's a bit more strongly than the average English person.

What about 'sexted'? Anyone ever seen it written 'sext'?

'I sext him.'

I agree with pp, the correct form is text messaged or even sent a text message so having a paddy about the use of the abbreviation text in the past tense is ridiculous.

When people write "I text him yesterday" it annoys me so in my head I think they mean "I text't him yesterday"

Which is I think what's happened with this.

Or rather "I text'd him"

But they're leaving the apostraphie and the D out.

Usually new technology verbs are regular so take the 'ed' ending in the past e.g. Faxed, photocopied.

This is probably why OED has 'texted'.

People don't like the sound of 'texted' so have made it irregular like 'put' or 'cut'.

Some verbs do have two possible past tense forms. It looks like 'to text' will be one of them.

YANBU.
"Text" instead of "texted" is on a par with "I done" and "should of".

YANBU

Texted is the past, text the present & texts the plural of the noun.

I can also use etc correctly

For some reason, on the Jeremy Kyle show, they have their own version of the noun:

"So she sent me a textis saying my boyfriend had slept with her"

I've seen it time and time and time again. Maybe it's a Norfolk thing

I avoid texted - it doesn't sound right. I just rearrange the sentence so I say. I sent her a text.... or whatever rather than I text her or I texted her. That way I can't offend anyone.

Texted just sounds wrong. It's like when small children say I readed a book. I think it is an irregular verb so text is fine.

Grief

That "I am sat here" thing is colloquialism. I have to admit that I do say that, even though I'm well aware it's grammatically incorrect and would not write it.

All these people who are saying the 'correct' form is 'I sent him a text message' - where are you getting this from?

Who decides what the 'correct' form is?

We don't have any kind of institution for the English language saying what is 'correct' and what isn't. Even if we did, countries where they do have such institutions still use 'incorrect' words (eg the French using 'le weekend' instead of the 'correct' form of 'fin de semaine'.)

If people use it with frequency, it is an acceptable usage.

Texted sounds so clumsy I much prefer text.

Given how messaging apps seem to have taken over from other forms of electronic communication (even in the workplace), text/texted is becoming irrelevant.

"Messaged" is correct, and covers all bases.