Learn 55 abbreviations for texting & messaging in English

Hello, I'm Gill at www.engvid.com and today's lesson, we're looking at shortened forms of

longer words, which are called abbreviations. When you make something shorter, it's called

an abbreviation. That's a very long word for something that's very short, okay? So, you

will see these, for example, in a text message on your mobile phone or maybe in an informal

email or on a forum online on the internet where people are being quite chatty and maybe

a bit casual. And also, they may be in a hurry and they don't want to type the whole word.

They just want to put a shorter version of the word or group of words, so people use

these for that. So, let's have a look, shall we?

This might look rather strange at first, but I hope it will begin to make since as we go

through. So, some of these shortened forms are based on numbers, because if you have

this number 2, it can also mean the word "to", as well as the number two, "to", or "too".

So, it's often used to represent one of those words. So, if you say this, it's "to be".

You've got the letter B and the number 2 - 2b. It's the verb "to be", okay? So, that's a

very quick way, especially in a text message, or maybe in Twitter as well where you're limited

to a certain number of characters. That's another reason why people shorten these. So,

2b. So, can you read this one? 2day. So that means "today". On this day, today. Okay? And

then this one: 2moro. So, it's not spelt the usual way - tomorrow, but again, that's to

make it shorter. "Moro", it's a kind of phonetic spelling, 2moro. And this one - 2nite, "tonight",

this evening, tonight. Okay.

Now, can you think what this one might mean? "F2F", so this is "to" in the middle. If you

think of your face - face to face. So, if you want a meeting with someone, or a lesson,

you don't want to use Skype, you don't want to use the phone, you want to see them face

to face, in the same room, person to person. So, that's "face to face". Okay? And then

this one, these letters we're covering later, but again the "2" appears here. "g2cu". If

you listen to "cu", if you say the letters, "c" and "u", it's "see" and "you". Okay? So,

those letters sound like those words. So, they are used to represent those words. And

the "g" means "good". Good to see you. Okay? Good to see you, right? That's easy. Okay.

Let's move on to 4. So again, 4, the number 4 can also look like that word, "for", for.

So, 4get. "Forget", to forget something. When you don't remember, you forget. And this one,

b4, "before", okay? Before. Not after, but before. So, that's another nice short one

for a longer word, okay?

Next one is 8. Now, this is a rather funny one, but it's very useful. So, we've got here

cu, like this one again, cul8r. So, "see you later". Okay? The 8 is part of the word "later".

See you later. It's very, very quick. One, two, three, four, five characters. There are

five letters in the word "later" on its own. Here, you've got "see you later" just in five

characters, okay? This one m8, "mate". I don't know if that word is used so much in America

or Canada, but in the UK, people say "mate" when they mean "friend". My mate, it's an

informal word for "friend". Oh, how are you doing, mate? How are you, mate? It's a very

friendly sort of word to use. So, "mate". And this one, can you guess what this one

is? W8 - wait, wait. Can you wait? W8, "wait", okay? So, they're quite useful.

Right, let's move on to the letters, then. So, B we had already, "to be". So, that's

the verb "to be", just B, B. Bcos is the word "because", which takes a long time to write,

as I just discovered there. Because - bcos, because a lot of people pronounce this word

"because, because", very quickly. Cos, people also put "cos", not just "bcos", but they

just put "cos", because when people are speaking, they sometimes say "cos" instead of "because"

just if they're speaking quickly and informally. So, that's because. This one, a bit different.

The b doesn't stand for "be" this time, but can you guess what it might be? Something

day, a special day that comes once a year? A birthday. So, that's birthday, okay? Now,

this one is another different one. F is "friend", so can you guess what the B stands for? There

are two possibilities, actually. This is used for two different words. It can mean best

friend, my best friend, or it can mean boyfriend, boyfriend, okay? So, you can only tell from

the context which one it is. Best friend or boyfriend, unless they happen to be the same.

If your boyfriend is your best friend, and your best friend is your boyfriend, then that's

- I don't know, that's easy then. Not confusing. Okay. And then this one, this is, again, very

different. If you're invited to a party that you may get a printed invitation, or it may

be in an email, byob. And it's an instruction to bring something. Bring - what do you take

to a party, usually, that begins with B? Something to drink, the container that the drink comes

in is a bottle. So, bring your own bottle, okay? Right. Let's move on.

So, we've got C again, which we had before, "cu" as we had before and also "cd" together

can mean "could", could. And also, we don't have it written here, but "sd" or "shd" can

mean "should". Could and should. That's the more usual one, with "shd". So, could, could,

okay?

D often means "do", the little verb "to do". So, "du", do you want to meet, whatever. And

this one is a useful one. If you're decorating your house, you buy - you're doing it, you're

buying the paint, you're buying the brushes, you're buying rolls of wallpaper, all of that.

You might be cutting pieces of wood, all sorts of things. And it's called DIY, and there

is a shop called a DIY shop, where you buy all these things. And it means "do it yourself".

Meaning you don't pay a professional to come and decorate your home, you do it yourself,

okay? But people always just say "DIY". Some people love DIY. They spend their weekends

doing DIY. So, we don't often say "do it yourself". It takes too long to say and even longer to

write.

Okay, so next one, E. So, if you say this and you say it - this letter, the way Americans

pronounce that letter, not the way British English people - in the UK, we say "zed" for

that letter, but in America and probably Canada too, I think - no, they don't, sorry. In America,

they say "zee", okay? So, if you say ez, ez, that's "easy", easy, okay? And then this one,

if you say it, it becomes fairly clear what it is: enuf, "enough", because "enough" has

a lot of letters in it, it's quicker to write it phonetically, enuf, okay?

And then finally for this column, G. Often means "good", as we had here. Good to see

you. So, "good", could be just g on it's on, or gd. And gnite, "good night". And then this

one, we had bf, and now we've got gf. So, bf was "best friend" or "boyfriend". This

one is "girlfriend". Just girlfriend, okay. Girlfriend.

Okay. So, let's move on to the next column. Q, if you say the letter q, it sounds like

the word, that funny word where people stand in a line waiting for something, maybe in

a shop waiting to be served. They're in a queue. So, someone might send you a text message:

"I'm going to be late, I'm waiting in a q to buy my train ticket" or something like

that. So, they just put "q".

Then, if you say this letter, it's r. So, ru, or ur, so it's the verb "to be", the form

"are", okay?

And then u we've had before. So, cu, du, ru, ur, okay?

V means "very", very. So, v and then vg, "very good".

Then w, that can mean "with" or, yes, it can mean "with", and then wd, like the other ones

we had here, could and should, wd means "would". So, one w - with. Wd - would.

And then this letter, if you say the letter, it's the letter y. So, if you say y and make

it a question, it's that word, "why". So, y, maybe with a question mark means "why,

why?" Or just the letter on its own could mean "you", just the letter "you", or the

possessive "your" if it appears with an r, yr, "your", okay? Good.

Okay. So now, we got on to some really interesting ones. These are very similar. I don't know

if you can guess what they are. The "faik" part is the same in both, but there are two

alternatives. There's afaik and sfaik. I don't know if you've seen these at all, but they

mean "as far as I know", okay? So, that's "as" far as I know, or "so" far as I know.

They mean the same thing, it's just a different way of saying it with "as" or "so". As far

as I know, the, you know, the chief executive is visiting tomorrow. As far as I know, it's

what you say when you're not sure. You don't want to sound too definite about it, but as

far as I know, that is what is happening tomorrow, so far as I know. I may be wrong, but that's

what I've heard. So, that's what they are.

And then this one is a little bit jokey. Imo and imho, when you're giving your opinion,

o is "opinion", what you think, your own opinion about something. You're saying "In my opinion",

or "in my humble opinion". So, "humble". It's where you don't want to sound very - too strong

about something. It's your opinion. You don't want to push it onto other people. You want

to tell them what you think and you're being very polite about it. In a jokey way, a little

bit, with the word "humble". In my humble opinion, this is what I think. But "in my

opinion", it is not so jokey, okay. And then when you give your opinion and people can

see that you've been, you know, nice about it. You're not trying to impose it on them,

okay.

Right, so next one, fyi. Sometimes, people even say these letters without saying the

words, and it's often used in business. If someone forwards you an email, they might

type "fyi" at the top. "For your information", or it could be "for your interest". So, it's

for information or something you might be interested in. For your information, for your

interest. Okay.

Right. So, then just finally, the third column. You can probably guess that this is short

for "possible", possible, just "poss".

Ppl, that was one I didn't understand for a long time, and then I suddenly realized

"Ah, it's...", what do you think it is? It's "people", okay? People, "puh puh ul", it's

just the ppl, people, okay?

And then this one also is probably quite easy to guess. "Speak", speak. Okay?

And this one, you can probably guess. Sry, sry, "sorry", sorry. When you're saying "sorry"

to somebody.

And this one is probably quite easy. Tks is "thanks". Thanks. Okay.

And then this one is very funny. Wysiwyg, and if you haven't seen that before, it's

"what you see is what you get". So, if you're buying something, for example. A car - what

you see in front of you, if you pay the money, if you buy it, what you see there is what

you get. You just see it and if you like it, that's what you're going to buy. What you

see is what you get. Okay. It's a bit funny, that one. Okay.

And then lots of x's. You can have all sorts of numbers of x's, depending on how enthusiastic

the person is feeling. Xxx means kisses, okay? Kisses. And also, this one, because especially

actors do this. They go "mwah, mwah", like that. So, that's the sound of someone kissing.

Mwah, like that, mwah. Okay.

And then finally, to end with if you're not already asleep, this one means zzz. When you've

fallen asleep and you may be snoring a little bit, making that "snore" sound, zzz. So, I

thought that would be a good one to end with, especially as it's also the last letter of

the English alphabet.

So okay, there we are. I hope that's been useful for you and maybe taught you some vocabulary

as well as we've gone along. So, if you'd like to go to the website www.engvid.com , there's

a quiz there to test you on this. Also, if you'd like to see two other lessons on abbreviations,

there are two very good lessons. One by Ronnie and another by Alex. So, do look out for those,

because they have covered some different examples which I have not covered here. So, do have

a look at those. So, thanks very much for watching and hope to see you again soon. Bye

for now!