“I spoke to Mary” Am I not supposed to say “spoke” if it’s communication via text message or email?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've learned to say: I texted with Mary. Or emailed with Mary., to avoid confusion. Actually speaking to someone can make a difference in terms of depth of understanding of a situation or issue. It also implies an actual conversation. Too many times things are misconstrued or not that clear via text and to a lesser degree with email.

Would you then say something like “she said” or does that imply a spoken conversation? Or would you always say “she typed” or “she also texted,” etc?

Good question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've learned to say: I texted with Mary. Or emailed with Mary., to avoid confusion. Actually speaking to someone can make a difference in terms of depth of understanding of a situation or issue. It also implies an actual conversation. Too many times things are misconstrued or not that clear via text and to a lesser degree with email.

Would you then say something like “she said” or does that imply a spoken conversation? Or would you always say “she typed” or “she also texted,” etc?

I'm the PP. I generally say: I texted with Mary and she said X. I simply establish up front that I didn't actually speak to her on the phone or in person or on Teams video or wherever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t say spoke for email, texts or chats. I would say communicated or checked or similar.

That’s a bulky conversation.

You speaking with a neighbor in person about Betty and her ailing husband.

Yeah, so Betty texted that Phil is going to be in the hospital for a while. She communicated that he’s going to be okay but it’s going to be a long road. I asked if she needed anything and she responded with milk and bread. She also communicated that her brother in law will be visiting and parking in her driveway.
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That would take too much thought. I’m going with “said” and not worrying about it.

If it's a personal communication, I doubt it matters. I think here we are talking about (or at least I am) work communications. Actually speaking to the person frequently provides more context and greater understanding of a matter than texting. And that additionally understanding can make a difference in work related matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't use spoke unless it was verbal.

How about sign language?

🖕

[Anonymous]

Why can’t you just say “I emailed Mary”. Or “ Mary responded via email that…”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've learned to say: I texted with Mary. Or emailed with Mary., to avoid confusion. Actually speaking to someone can make a difference in terms of depth of understanding of a situation or issue. It also implies an actual conversation. Too many times things are misconstrued or not that clear via text and to a lesser degree with email.

Would you then say something like “she said” or does that imply a spoken conversation? Or would you always say “she typed” or “she also texted,” etc?

I agree with the first quoted person above. To answer your question if you established that it was an email communication and you said “she said” it is established that it was via email. So in that case context matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't use spoke unless it was verbal.

How about sign language?

🖕

I hear you.

[Anonymous]

Super literal people are exhausting. We get it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you contacted me / texted me / chatted on this but not “spoken”.

[Anonymous]

Just say you responded or she responded. How difficult is this?

[Anonymous]

I’m not a super literal person but if a colleague told me they spoke with someone and it was actually an email I would think that was very misleading. I might tell them to follow up in writing so we have it documented. Or might want to know the tone of what was conveyed. Or it might be a bad idea to have it in writing for some reason like legal discovery or foua or whatsver. The way it was conveyed really matters for work stuff.

[Anonymous]

It’s fine. It’s technically incorrect, because you haven’t spoken you’ve written. So I try to avoid using the word spoken when I have in fact texted or emailed or something. But that’s just because I have a graduate degree in English and I’m anxious about these kinds of things for no good reason. If someone were to use the phrase “I have spoken to you” when they had texted, I wouldn’t even notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not a super literal person but if a colleague told me they spoke with someone and it was actually an email I would think that was very misleading. I might tell them to follow up in writing so we have it documented. Or might want to know the tone of what was conveyed. Or it might be a bad idea to have it in writing for some reason like legal discovery or foua or whatsver. The way it was conveyed really matters for work stuff.

You are the super literal person that you think you are not. You are being ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

"spoke" is fine.

If you need to be more specific, be more specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you contacted me / texted me / chatted on this but not “spoken”.

Reflect on how idiotic this is.


Also, if you need to be uselessly pedantic, "contact" is a noun (something you make), not a verb (something you do).