Since the advent of the cell phone and with it the text messaging facility, life has become more condensed. Whatever one wants to say, it can’t take more than 160 characters, including spaces – the allowed length for an SMS message. That’s the previous sentence until here (without the word here), not much, eh? So, how can one convey life’s little and bigger crises in this much space, without sending a second message, because time is of the essence?
Chances are, for anyone over 25 (or 15, for that matter), texting or sending text messages with its myriad abbreviations, short forms and acronyms will not come easy. Text messaging etiquette takes a while to get used to and requires some practice. So let’s get going. Imagine having an SMS argument with someone and wanting to say “Are we going to have to go through this again?” That’s 46 characters and quite a bit of typing.
Spell It Like It Sounds!
One way of shortening words is to spell them like they sound. Here are a few examples of the most common text messaging shortcuts:
- any – ne
- are – r
- be – b
- cutie - qt
- see – c
- we – v
- why – y
- you – u
What does the sample sentence look like now? Right: R v going to go through this again? Not that much shorter yet, let’s see what else is required.
Using Numbers and Symbols as Words or Parts of Words
Many words can be spelled like numbers, or at least a part of them can. Also, don’t even think about spelling out numbers! Simply use the actual number.
- anyone – ne1
- and - & or n
- at - @
- ate – 8
- for – 4
- forgot – 4got or 4gt
- great – gr8t
- later – l8r
- no one – no1
- percent – %
- to/too/two – 2
Let’s look at the sample sentence again: R v going 2 go through this again? That can be shorter.
Other Text Messaging Shortcuts
Common SMS practices for shortening words that can’t be condensed with any of the above mentioned methods are:
- Leaving out vowels,
- removing the e in words ending with e,
- replacing o with u for correct sound,
- shortening double consonants to one,
- replacing i + consonants with y.
- at work –@wrk
- give – giv
- love – luv
- please – plz
- right – ryt
- sorry – sry
- thanks – thx
- through – thru
Common Text Messaging Abbreviations
There are many SMS acronyms, abbreviations and short forms for popular phrases and the list is growing daily; the selection below is just a small sample. One’s own creativity is the limit, so there’s no excuse not to add to the pool of catchy SMS phrases.
- are we going to go through this again – awgtgtta (8 characters, can’t beat that)
- as soon as possible - asap
- because – bcuz
- (will) be right back – brb
- by the way – btw
- call me – cm
- don’t know – dk
- excuse me – em
- good morning – gm
- good night – gn
- f2f – face to face
- hand – have a nice day
- have fun – hf
- in my (humble) opinion – imo/imho
- in my not-so-humble opinion – imnsho
- irl – in real life
- jsyk – just so you know
- keep in touch – kit
- laughing out loud – lol
- lmk – let me know
- miss you – mu
- nature – n8r
- okay – k
- running late – ringl8
- see you later – cul8r
- see you tomorrow – cut
- talk to you later – ttyl or ttul
- time to go – t2go
- tyt – take your time
One side effect of text messaging is that spelling, grammar and punctuation go for a toss. For example, in SMS talk, nobody would say “Why do you want to know?” but rather “Why you want to know?” or “Y u wnt 2 know?” (or, worse, “Y U wnt 2 no?”)
The Reach of Text Messaging
There is no point in complaining about the decay of spelling and grammar – after all, SMS stands for short message service. It is here to stay and with it the short forms and abbreviations. For instant messaging and in chat rooms, SMS lingo has already become its own, universally accepted language and there’s not much anyone can do about it.
In fact, dictionaries are responding by adding new terms to their collection. For example, the term “text messaging” has been an entry in Merriam-Webster’s since 1982 and the verb to text since 1998; however, no entry for SMS yet. There are many resources for text messaging online; AT&T has even put together an SMS guide for parents so they can catch up with their children. And just google for “haiku sms” and find some astonishing creations.
But em, hv 2 go wryt sum n8r poetry now. Kit n gudluk!
Or how about moving on to Using Twitter for Beginners, Keyboard Shortcuts when writing or What Is Google Wave?
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