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)

sashh. Nouns become verbs all the time, though. They do grate at first (I still haven't got used to Olympic athletes who talk about "medalling") but eventually we all get used to them. I think we have to accept that "text", like "message", is now widely used as a verb.

I accept the argument that language evolves, so I don't know why "I text" instead of "I texted" is so irritating. I think it's because it breaks the universal rule of how new verbs behave in English, which is that you form the past tense by adding "-ed", as in "I faxed", "I messaged" etc. "I text" just sounds lazy.

My pet hate is 'didn't used to' instead of "didn't use to'.

You wouldn't say, 'didn't liked to' or 'didn't wanted to'.

'I text him last night'' sounds as weird and wrong to me as 'I see him last night'.

But I think, straining hard to tune my ear in, that to some people 'I texted him' sounds as weird and wrong as 'I hitted him'.

We've had this come up before and I think the 'answer' was that there isn't actually a definitely right way yet because of it being a new verb, could be regular or irregular, wait and see which way it goes, etc. But I'm holding out for 'texted' as 'I text him' just sounds so wrong...

Totally agree but I think pedants' corner topic would be a happier home for this thread.

Oooh posted before I'd seen VintagePerfumista's excellent post(s) which say it all .

The object is implied though hesterton . He wrote (me a letter).

Needs plus past participle may be colloquially acceptable, but it isn't in formal writing and if I were editing something where it appeared I would change it.

I can't understand why anyone thinks 'texted' sounds 'awkward', 'clumsy' or 'wrong', and personally I loathe the 'I text him/her' format, but I do feel it's a generational thing. 20 years ago we wouldn't have been having a debate about it.

I read a lot of craft blogs and at one time the Americans would have said 'I knit this sweater' whereas the English would have said 'I knitted this sweater' (or 'jumper' ). Now more and more English writers - perhaps most of them - have adopted the American usage.

'I text him last night'. Sounds wrong

i texted him last night. Sounds a bit wrong

I sent him a text last night. Sounds good.

Problem solved.

to be oblivious to how clumsy and unwieldy a word 'texted' is

It's not remotely unwieldy. What does that even mean? It's not difficult to say, its not hard to spell. It's the absolute correct way to say it.

People who say/write could of should of and text where they mean texted just sound vaguely illiterate.

There is nothing "a bit wrong"( about the word texted. It is the past tense of the verb.
Maybe some posters should do a spot of revision.

Completely agree OP, it is clearly 'texted' and I'm glad someone said it.

While we are here, another irritating error is to refer to a "chest of draws". There are drawers in the chest therefore it is a chest of drawers. Another thread, I guess...

I used fetch and sexed as examples of the closest sounding verbs which are already in the English language.

But they aren't, as they both end in affricatives, while text ends in a plosive.

The closest phonetically may be test (because text is essentially 'tekst').

Having the affricative 'ks' rather than the fricative 's' before the 't' does make it feel different, but it's a closer approximation than words ending in affricative sounds.

Nina that's a mispelling though...

I bow to my high school speech and drama teacher.

Today 10:05 MrsOverTheRoad

*Nina that's a mispelling though...

What is? If you are referring to "chest of draws" you are wrong. It is simply the use of the wrong word due to ignorance of the correct term (amazingly). It has nothing to do with spelling!

(Your "mispelling"is a misspelling, by the way.)

I find it fascinating rather than infuriating that some people use text rather than texted for the past tense.

There are lots of common verbs ending in 't' where the past tense is the same as the present tense: cut, put, set, hit. (which means we are a quite capable of deciding whether it's past or present from context). So it's perhaps not surprising whatever pattern / rule our brain is inferring from these "ending in t" words interferes with the "add 'ed' rule".

After all, native speakers don't have a problem applying the "+ed" to new words, eg email -> emailed, so it's a curiosity why so frequently text is used for past tense. Is it because texted does sound a bit odd, whereas text sounds like a past tense (like vexed)? We need a linguist to investigate.

"Write" is a transitive verb that can take two objects, a direct and an indirect.

He wrote a letter to me (subject + verb + direct + indirect) (English prefers that order if you have two objects, first direct, then indirect)

He wrote a letter (subject + verb + direct object)

He wrote (to) me (subject + verb + indirect object) UK English prefers the preposition, US English doesn't. Both are correct.

But they aren't, as they both end in affricatives, while text ends in a plosive.

I have never heard the terms 'affricative' or 'plosives ' before. I'm going to imagine them as two warring tribes.