# "Assault" for "assaulted", "text" for "texted", etc. Anybody else noticing this? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 1, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325 "2016-10-01T00:44:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/21 "2016-10-02T13:01:10Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > The cat wants petting. > > The cat wants to be petted. Or, in Western PA (maybe elsewhere, but that’s where my roommates were from), “the cat needs petted.” Actually, the context was a dirty floor, “the floor needs swept.” I would have said, “the floor needs to be swept”, and I’ve also heard “the floor needs sweeping”, but the past tense with the dropped “to be” is a Western PA thing from what I can tell. As a New Yorker, I’m cursing the dropping of “the” before prom. As in, “are you going to prom?” When I was a youth, back in the 12th century, it was “are you going to the prom?”, but now even my just-west-of-NY kids drop the “the”. Back to the OP, no, I’ve never seen or heard anyone drop the “ed” from “assault” or “text”. I’ll text you. I’ve already texted her. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/22 "2016-10-02T13:02:12Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Are you hearing this in natural speech, or are you only reading this online? There’s a lot of self-conscious and contrived printed language online that isn’t really natural–especially regarding cats. These aren’t things people go around saying in normal spoken discourse. I think this OP is about real, natural language. Really? I am disappoint. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/23 "2016-10-03T12:52:08Z")
I have noticed the “text” thing a lot, since it annoys me terribly. I’m not talking about teens here either, but people my age (mid-30s) who should know better and who didn’t grow up using “text” as a verb. “She text me yesterday and told me x.” I’m fine with saying “texted” there. I’m not sure if the people saying “text” are avoiding a slightly awkward pronunciation by swallowing the -ed or if they actually think that’s correct. On your related note, I went most of my life without hearing “verse” for “versus” in the Midwest. It seems the people I’ve heard say it as an adult are from Pennsylvania or somewhere on the east coast, so in my experience it seems to be some sort of regionalism and not a random misreading of the abbreviation “vs.” ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/24 "2016-10-03T15:18:55Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That’s just /t/ elision. A lot of people elide final /t/ after s. Or glottalize it, which may sound like it’s missing to people unfamiliar with it. It has nothing to do with inflections going away. You don’t seem to have read the whole sentence. “Heard” and “seen”. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/25 "2016-10-03T17:46:03Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > I can’t remember ever hearing “text” or “assault” used as past tense. I have long heard and seen “he is bias” and “he is prejudice”, though. > [@BigT](#): > > That’s just /t/ elision. A lot of people elide final /t/ after s. Or glottalize it, which may sound like it’s missing to people unfamiliar with it. It has nothing to do with inflections going away. I’ve heard “bias” and “prejudice” as adjectives too, and I don’t think it’s due to /t/ elision, since they’re not eliding the /t/ in other similar sounding words. Perhaps it started that way, but people are learning and using it incorrectly, including putting it in writing (like how people write “could of” instead of “could’ve” because they sound the same when spoken). ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/26 "2016-10-03T20:20:39Z")
I’ve noticed such sentences as “according Officer Davis, the suspect was intoxicated” as opposed to “according to…”. Reporters for the local daily (Lafayette _Journal & Courier_) employ this construction so frequently that it appears to be the paper’s standard usage. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/27 "2016-10-04T07:58:33Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Are you hearing this in natural speech, or are you only reading this online? There’s a lot of self-conscious and contrived printed language online that isn’t really natural–especially regarding cats. These aren’t things people go around saying in normal spoken discourse. I think this OP is about real, natural language. First I saw it. Then I heard it. “This cat loves to be pet.” ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/28 "2016-10-04T10:30:17Z")
This is how “I could care less” got started, and when was the last time anyone complained about that verbal abomination? Beware English lovers, it will only get worse. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/29 "2016-10-04T10:32:34Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > You don’t seem to have read the whole sentence. “Heard” and “seen”. Or people write like they talk. I’m just saying that words that end in /st/ often wind up with the /t/ dropped or glotalized in many dialects. They don’t prove that -ed is being dropped from all verbs. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/30 "2016-10-04T10:53:02Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Beware English lovers, it will only get worse. Yes, the apogee of peeving about the deterioration of the language was Jonathan Swift in 1712. The quality of peeving has gone consistently downhill since then. Social media is partly to blame - there’s an abundance of peeving in internet comments, but that’s quantity rather than quality. The peeving is just so sloppy and casual - completely unlike the finely crafted peeves that you would find in the letters to _The Times_ of my parents’ generation. The quality of teaching is also partly to blame: students today learn so much more about descriptivist linguistics that they seem unable to summon up the ignorant self-righteous vitriol that’s required to carry forward the finest peeving traditions of our forebears. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/31 "2016-10-04T11:37:37Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > First I saw it. Then I heard it. “This cat loves to be pet.” Sounds like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/32 "2016-10-04T13:13:35Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > As a New Yorker, I’m cursing the dropping of “the” before prom. As in, “are you going to prom?” When I was a youth, back in the 12th century, it was “are you going to the prom?”, but now even my just-west-of-NY kids drop the “the”. I haven’t been to a prom since 1995, and we never put a “the” in there. You went to prom, not the prom. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/33 "2016-10-04T14:52:29Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Beware English lovers, it will only get worse. The English are not the only ones you need to be wary of. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/34 "2016-10-04T14:55:34Z")
My prom was in 1984 and we always used “the prom” when talking about it. More importantly, Stephen King - the all time expert on proms- calls it “the prom”.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/35 "2016-10-04T19:18:42Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > This is how “I could care less” got started, and when was the last time anyone complained about that verbal abomination. Linguistically this has nothing to do with the OP, but it does fulfill my prediction in post #15. Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/36 "2016-10-04T19:20:04Z")
I think “to prom” vs. “to the prom” was a regional thing. In NY, we said “the prom”, but my wife from the Midwest has always dropped the “the”. My kids and their friends from the Garden State also drop the “the”. Regarding vs., my youngest and his friends, back when they were playing U10 and younger soccer, used to ask “who are we versing?”, but that seems to go away when they get older. Anyway, this is pretty far afield from the OP. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/37 "2016-10-04T20:53:47Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I am employed by one. > > DIE(rhymes with “sigh”)–OH–CEASE (as in "cease and desist). Stress on the first syllable. > > The adjective is a little tricky to write out. > > DIE–O\*–CISS–UN > > O\* is like the O sound in “ought” or “cough.” Stress on the second syllable. > > Used in a phrase: “It was strictly a diocesan problem.” Depends where you’re from. The o in diocesan for me is not ought/cough, but that’s because cot and caught are different for me. And, I definitely say die-uh-seize as objected to by the OP. All varieties covered in Merriam-Webster online: \ˈdī-ə-səs, -ˌsēs, -ˌsēz\ ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/38 "2016-10-05T01:06:07Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > “The cat wants pet.” This is sort of a weird one. I’l ignore the missing “to be”, which is a totally different pattern that appears in some dialects. Consider: “The cat hates to be wet” “The cat hates to be wetted” Both are acceptable sentences, though the second seems awkward. Although cats hate to be wetted, and the action of wetting is to make something wet, somehow the sentence works better when we talk about the adjective rather than the verb. Even if we wanted to focus on the action, we’d probably say “The cat hates getting wet” instead. “Pet” can be an adjective, though the usual definitions don’t include “the condition of being petted”. And yet… why not? It’s a pretty small leap, all things considered. It’s kind of poetic, actually–a “pet cat” can be both a cat kept as a pet; and a blissful, satisfied feline recipient of a petting. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/39 "2016-10-05T02:57:30Z")
The mention of “dio-seez,” though not quite the same phenomenon, reminds me of something a former boss used to say. Evidently unaware of the singular word “parenthesis,” he started with the more common plural “parentheses,” and back-formed the singular by simply dropping the “s”: “pa-REN-the-see.” That gave me a nails-on-the-chalkboard feeling. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/40 "2016-10-06T22:13:49Z")
I haven’t heard the “assault” or “text” ones, but I hear “the cat likes to be pet” all the time, and it bugs the hell out of me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325.md?page=3)