# "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:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/41 "2016-10-07T04:52:37Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I am employed by one. > > DIE(rhymes with “sigh”)–OH–CEASE (as in "cease and desist). Stress on the first syllable. I thought the OP was referring to using the singular ‘diocese’ when referring to many/multiple/numerous ‘dioces_es_’. I’ll add noticing more and more people not actually pronouncing the possessive ‘s’ when the possessing word ends in an -[consonant]s. So like, “that’s Smithers’/Smithers’s\* Malibu Stacy” is said like, “that’s Smithers Malibu Stacy”. It grates! - this isn’t about the written form and whether you should drop the last s or not, so don’t go there! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/42 "2017-07-30T10:21:08Z")
Right here on the Dope, here’s an example. Just read the very first sentence of [this thread right here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=831990). ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/43 "2017-07-30T11:42:53Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Right here on the Dope, here’s an example. Just read the very first sentence of [this thread right here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=831990). Given the rest of his post and his other posts in that thread, that seems more like a typo than intentional construction. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/44 "2017-07-30T11:58:43Z")
In my neck of the woods I could find myself speaking with 2 people, one who says: “That thing needs fixed.” and another who says: “I fixded it.”. ---
**Author:** ![chaika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chaika/32/405_2.png) [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/45 "2017-07-30T14:45:02Z")
I haven’t noticed “assault” for “assaulted” but I have certainly heard/seen “text” rather than “texted.” I think it happens because “text” sounds like it could be a past tense form, along the lines of “vexed” or “flexed.” For someone who hears it that way, “texted” sounds wrong, as though one were doubling the past tense markers. I have encountered this particular habit more often in the UK than in the US (I can’t speak to other countries). On another forum I belong to, based in the UK and with a huge membership, arguments about the text/texted controversy arise rather frequently. Some people insist that they could never say “texted.” They generally can’t explain why other than to say, “It sounds wrong.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/46 "2017-07-30T14:45:59Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Right here on the Dope, here’s an example. Just read the very first sentence of [this thread right here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=831990). If it took you a year to locate your first example, I’m going out on a limb to suggest this is not the tidal wave of linguistic doom your OP made it out to be. 🙂 In a more serious vein, I suspect the whole thing is **BigT** ’s contention of folks eliding sounds, rather than an effort to ignore declensions. Coupled of course with txt-writing, where \*every \* orthographic / linguistic convention is sacrificed in the single-minded pursuit of using fewer characters before hitting [Send]. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/47 "2017-07-30T15:10:59Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > all of those Catholic “dio-sees”…ahhrrrrgh! Not something that forms a regular topic of conversation with me, but that’s always been the standard pronunciation for the plural that I grew up with. Or did you mean that’s how people are pronouncing the singular? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/48 "2017-07-30T15:15:00Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised if we start hearing “diosee” as the singular, the same way a lot of people say “specie” as the singular for “species.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/49 "2017-07-30T15:15:12Z")
Me too. One DYE-oh-Cease. Two DYE-oh-Seize. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/50 "2017-07-30T15:16:18Z")
One I’ve noticed on occasion, and from folks who ought to know better, is “incent” used instead of “incentivize”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325/51 "2017-07-30T15:25:40Z")
When I was a kid in the '70s, I only heard “versus,” pronounced in full. My guess as to what happened is that some people started to parse the phrase differently. So “Ali versus Foreman” is “Ali against Foreman” - noun-preposition-noun. But some people stated parsing it as subject-object-verb - “Ali opposes Foreman.” So if it’s a verb then “verse” makes sense as part of a conjugation. I think there’s a second thing going on in which people think it sounds wrong to repeat sounds. So Charle’s instead of Charles’s, tex’d instead of texted, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assault-for-assaulted-text-for-texted-etc-anybody-else-noticing-this/767325.md?page=2)