Past tense of 'text' and 'bias'

[robotsmania]

This is really starting to annoy me but I see it 99.9% of the time so I am now questioning whether I'm actually wrong.

Surely you should say: 'I texted her last night' NOT 'I text her last night'

Likewise: 'The newspaper article was biased'. NOT 'The newspaper article was bias'.

I'm pretty sure I'm right- but why does everyone get it wrong- is it simply that they can't easily hear the difference when they speak so the don't write it down???

"Biased", definitely.

I don't think text is a verb though so would say, "I sent her a text last night".

Text is a verb and surely it has been for quite a while now. Why say "I sent a text" when "I texted" is less verbose?

Texted
Biased

Biased in that sense is an adjective not a verb.

I could still be talking in the present tense and say "the article IS biased".

I would say "texted", but since "to text" is a newish verb it has not yet settled down enough for there to be a definite correct answer.

Biased.

Text. It feels very wrong saying texted imo.

Texted
Biased

New words tend to follow stadard patterns - it's usually really old words which are irregular (is "to be" regular in any European language?)

But things we might consider wrong do gain ground. Look at how often we see "could of", for example.

I agree that texted is more regular, and it feels like it makes more sense. But it's not yet fixed enough to make a big deal out of someone saying "I text her".

I'd say texted and biased yes

But it could also be 'that newspaper is biased' ... rather than there is a bias in the reporting of that news

You're correct, OP because all "new" verbs, like "text" are regular in the past tense.

You won't find many who argue with you here in PC, a grammar rule, is, after all, a grammar rule, (and historically, language develops from irregular-regular anyway, not the other way round) but over in other areas of MN you'll have people arguing till the cows come home that "I text him yesterday" is fine.

But maybe this will be an interesting case, where a new verb develops an irregular past tense! I think it's unlikely, but some people talk about "texted" being awkward to say and preferring "text" for the past tense, so it might win out.

As SMS becomes less common and people use messaging apps more, maybe "to text" will dwindle in use and people will be saying "I messaged her".

Hopefully Trills!

Thanks for the replies- I would definitely say to text should be a regular verb - and it is more down to people just writing as they speak when they write 'I text her yesterday'.

On a related note over new verbs being regular and older verbs being irregular- isn't that why we say 'he was hanged' versus 'I hung out the washing' because to hang someone to kill them was a newer use of the verb?