She text me

[Dionysiana]

I see this so often on MN; “text” used as the past tense instead of “texted”. Is this becoming accepted usage in the UK? I live abroad so am out of touch with new developments. But the birth of a new irregular verb seems odd.

[ScentOfAMemory]

@MrsTerryPratchett

"to text" as a verb is a linguistic neologism and new verbs always have regular endings.

I assume this is true until time takes its toll and words change through usage. Hasn't this just happened very quickly because the word is in use so much? 'Text' seems to be becoming the norm. I still say 'texted'.

It may end up that way, but unlikely, as other verbs have historically gone the other way. Irregular shifts into regular. There would be no reason for a language moving towards having more regular elements to suddenly go in the other direction and turn a regular, logical construction into something not.
That would be like us suddenly randomly starting to use "thee" and "thou" again instead of "you"

[Dionysiana]

Thanks everyone for your replies! I didn’t expect any! Already too many exclamation marks. I find this fascinating because the pronunciation is so clearly not a double “t”, but an “id” afterwards, like invited or sighted. There’s no audible reason that would explain the misspelling. There’s absolutely nothing about “text” that would suggest it should become irregular, but maybe it will. (I will grit my teeth in annoyance, but recognise that languages are the people who speak/write them).

[Dionysiana]

P.S. I will be using “texted” for the foreseeable future 😉.

[GerronBuzanDoThaWomwok]

I seen her is a particular favourite 😂

[upinaballoon]

@Dionysiana

P.S. I will be using “texted” for the foreseeable future 😉.

So will I, because I think it's correct. Also, I don't have any problem with saying 'texted', and in my accent I think there is difference in sounds between the 't' and the 'd'.

[EspeciallyDedicated]

Me too, I hate “I text”, it sounds all wrong too, as if the speaker has missed a bit out, I think it’s easier to say texted.

[Reddahlias]

Of course the past tense is "she texted"

[Reddahlias]

Right now I text, but earlier I texted!

[PedantScorner]

Ed keeps going missing.
It could be that text sounds like texed.
I see quite a few verbs missing the ending on social media.

[NeverApologiseNeverExplain]

Try to think of it this way.
"Texted" is not wrong. However "text" is a commonly-used and acceptable variant.

I am pedantic (and I dislike "text" as a past tense) but this is a neologism coined for a modern purpose and "correctness" is dictated by usage. So we have to accept it I'm afraid, even if we don't use it ourselves.

[PedantScorner]

@NeverApologiseNeverExplain , it's not only text that gets used without the verb ending though. If I said 'Here's a photo of the house I clean yesterday.', it would not be acceptable.

[NeverApologiseNeverExplain]

@PedantScorner

@NeverApologiseNeverExplain , it's not only text that gets used without the verb ending though. If I said 'Here's a photo of the house I clean yesterday.', it would not be acceptable.

But cleaned has been around as past tense of "clean" for centuries. My point is that a new verb for a new concept is a blank canvas. I wasn't suggesting that it's generally OK to miss off the end of past tense verb conjugations just because lots of people make the mistake.

To give an example- "I seen him" is commonly used in Scotland. It's dialect. It's not acceptable in formal written language though.

[Reddahlias]

But cleaned has been around as past tense of "clean" for centuries. My point is that a new verb for a new concept is a blank canvas.

I'm not sure - I think our brains tend to regularise new words. To my brain it simply sounds correct to say "now I text " but "yesterday I texted"

How do you otherwise differentiate between the present and past tense?

[NeverApologiseNeverExplain]

@Reddahlias

But cleaned has been around as past tense of "clean" for centuries. My point is that a new verb for a new concept is a blank canvas.

I'm not sure - I think our brains tend to regularise new words. To my brain it simply sounds correct to say "now I text " but "yesterday I texted"

How do you otherwise differentiate between the present and past tense?

It's not about you though! It's about what a statistically-significant number of people do. Ours is not to question why, just to observe.

[NastyNiff]

Different social groups are doing this differently. Who shall be the victor?

[NotAnotherBathBomb]

A step above 'texes' instead of 'texts' as in 'he sent me so many texes about it'

[Reddahlias]

@NastyNiff

Different social groups are doing this differently. Who shall be the victor?

Social group? I had assumed age groups..

[PedantScorner]

Text is a noun not a verb. 'I sent her a text yesterday.' is better than 'I text(ed) her yesterday.'

[Reddahlias]

Yes 'a Text' is a noun but surely 'to text' is a verb?

[ScentOfAMemory]

@NeverApologiseNeverExplain

Try to think of it this way.
"Texted" is not wrong. However "text" is a commonly-used and acceptable variant.

I am pedantic (and I dislike "text" as a past tense) but this is a neologism coined for a modern purpose and "correctness" is dictated by usage. So we have to accept it I'm afraid, even if we don't use it ourselves.

I'm the first person to defend language changes and define myself absolutely as a descriptive linguist, but in this case- it's not an example of language change. It's not an acceptable variant either.
Neologisms are regular.
The English language has been moving inexorably towards more regularity for centuries. That's why the original "dreamt" and "learnt" had to shove along the couch and let "dreamed" and "learned" in.
David Crystal has a good article about why "text" used as the past tense is an interesting mistake. Interesting because it looks like language hard-wiring is going in the opposite direction to the way it's always gone - from regular to irregular, but ultimately it's not doing that, it is, quite simply, a mistake caused by pronunciation v spelling issues in the people who use it.

[ScentOfAMemory]

PS @NeverApologiseNeverExplain "I seen him" is a completely different kind of language mistake.

[NeverApologiseNeverExplain]

What gives you the authority to say that something is "incorrect" @ScentOfAMemory?

Last time I checked there was no English language equivalent to the Académie Française?

[LaChatte]

Slightly off topic but do either of you two speak French?

[LaChatte]

@NeverApologiseNeverExplain

What gives you the authority to say that something is "incorrect" @ScentOfAMemory?

Last time I checked there was no English language equivalent to the Académie Française?

That was for Never and Scent by the way.

[NeverApologiseNeverExplain]

Yes, I studied French at University. I'd say I was an intermediate speaker. Why do you ask?