By: Chris Brubaker

Photo Courtesy of Erlingsi

 

With only 160 characters of text available in a text message, how do you squeeze in a whole conversation? Easy, by forgetting everything you learned in 9^th grade English class, (if you haven’t already) and making it up as you go. You’ve heard the old saying “It’s like their speaking a different language” usually by parents talking about their kids, well this time it’s partially true. With the limited amount of characters allowed per text, avid texters have found a way to get their message across using the fewest amount of letters and numbers possible.

 

Acronyms

ASAP, most of us know what that means (as soon as possible). Acronyms are a big part of text messaging and some are easy to understand others are not, HAND…have a nice day. Acronyms while useful in keeping the number of characters low are only good between groups of people that know what they stand for. This is why many texters have turned to replacing syllables with numbers.

 

Numbers Speak

I 8 pizza for lunch today. Numbers and individual letters make up a large part of text message talk, b4 you go remember 2 leave a comment. This form of texting lingo can be understood by anyone making it more universal and popular than acronyms.

 

In general, if a word does not need a letter (or groups of letters) to be understood than it is left out or replaced with numbers. The name of the game is short and quick; typing on a phone’s number pad isn’t the easiest thing in the world.

 

Here are a few common texting acronyms and symbols:

BRB – Be right back

LOL – Laughing out loud

B4 – Before

GR8 – Great

TTYL – Talk to you later

THX – Thanks

CYA – See you

BTW – By the way

 

If you ever come across something you can’t quite figure out give these two recourses a try, SMS Dictionary and SMS Language Wiki.

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