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Jackiewritesverbatim Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Nextelled, Nexteled or Nextel'd...?

1font00Hi All,02font02br
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01font00I'm a court reporter for a local county court. I take down the spoken word in all court proceedings and sometimes have to produce a transcript of what was said. Last week I had a witness say: "Officer Fleming Nextelled me," referring to the use of a Nextel phone. I wasn't sure whether to spell it as Nextelled, Nexteled, or Nextel'd. I posted to several court reporter forums, and the members there seem to be equally divided between Nextelled and Nextel'd and cite various reasons for their opinions.02font02br
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01font00Can anyone here give me some guidance? 05002font02br
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01font00Thanks!02font02br
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01font00Jackie02font010id37
  

Top answer

0 I would use 01b 00Nextel-ed02b 00 because Nextel isn't that familiar a term that a verb created just for them would be justified (****, I wouldn't do that for IBM either). I would thus make clear that this is artificial, concocted. A one-word rendition (nextelled) would mean that we're in the presence of an well-established word, which isn't and shouldn't be, IMO, the case.

— Marius Hancu

  • 0 I would use 01b 00Nextel-ed02b 00 because Nextel isn't that familiar a term that a verb created just for them would be justified (****, I wouldn't do that for IBM either).
  • I would thus make clear that this is artificial, concocted.
  • A one-word rendition (nextelled) would mean that we're in the presence of an well-established word, which isn't and shouldn't be, IMO, the case.
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12 Answers
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0 I would use 01b00Nextel-ed02b00 because Nextel isn't that familiar a term that a verb created just for them would be justified (****, I wouldn't do that for IBM either). I would thus make clear that this is artificial, concocted. A one-word rendition (nextelled) would mean that we're in the presence of an well-established word, which isn't and shouldn't be, IMO, the
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0My gut reaction is that if you are using the brand name Nextel as a verb, the past tense should be Nexteled. Doubling up the 'l's to regularise it doesn't seem quite right to me. I don't like the apostrophe version at all!02br
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00I'd be interested in what others think about this.0-
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0 I think that I agree with Marius. 02br
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00If you were writing the sentence yourself, I'd recommend reworking the sentence to avoid using a trademark as a verb ("Officer Fleming contacted me on my Nextel phone..."). It may seem more clunky, but it doesn't make up words, violate01b02b00 copyright laws, or guess at structure. 02br
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0 My vote is also for Nexteled, for the same reasons given above.02br
00 CJ0-
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0Revising to correct grammar isn't an option when making a transcript, unfortunately, or we'd all agree with that approach.02br
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00But I would double the L. I suppose in another ten years, when it's made its way into the dictionaries because it's become common use, we can just look it up.0-
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01cite10Marius Hancu12cite10I would use 11b10Nextel-ed12b10 because Nextel isn't that familiar a term that a verb created just for them would be justified (****, I wouldn't do that for IBM either). I would thus make clear that this is artificial, concocted. A one-word rendition (nextelled) would mean that we're in
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0 I realize that Jackie wasn't in the position to rewrite the sentence (as her username suggests!), but I guess I couldn't resist mentioning that any use of Nextel as a verb would be incorrect. No one in the thread had explicitly mentioned this, and I was afraid that an ESL user might skim the discussion and mistakenly conclude that we are permitted to turn any proper nouns into verbs. After all
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0I see your point. Nonetheless, with new technology being invented, more and more phrases and invented verbs are being coined as a result. Take for instance,[Podcast], [audio-streaming] or [video-streaming] are words being printed in tech columns on newspapers and used causally. Whether these newly coined words are accepted as being grammatically correct really depends on which side of the fence
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0 Indeed, but in teaching new students the art of English or formal writing it's often best to stay on the conservative side of the fence, right? That is, I may use Nextel as a verb in my blog but not in a research manuscript. Moreover, video-streaming and audio-streaming are not product names; they are generic processes. Most grammarians insist on "photocopying" instead of "xeroxing" or "tissue
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0Who knows what is to happen in 40 years. But I do know though for the past 15 years, the advance of computer had gone beyond light speed. From a 386 to Pentium and from OS to Window Professional it only took little over a decade. True,I do agree on a teaching and learning angle, we should keep it traditional and grammatical. 0-
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