How To Write Informal Messages Like A Native | FOMO, IMHO, WBU, and More!

Aww yeah! What's up everybody? Could  you understand that conversation well?  

Don't worry if you couldn't because in today's  live lesson I'm going to teach you how to say  

and use these abbreviations, which are shortened  forms of words. Aww yeah! What's up everybody  

I'm olly your Reallife English fluency coach  and welcome to today's live English lesson and  

don't worry if you're watching on replay  because you can still participate in the  

activities that I have planned and today  shoutout everybody goes to David, who says

...which is awesome! So thank you so much to David  for messaging. And if you want to get a shout out  

on next week's live make sure you leave me a  comment down below and tell me why you love the  

live lessons so much. Awesome! Welcome everybody  I saw a lot of people commenting already. I saw  

that David is in the comments. I saw that Lucy is  here from the Czech Republic. I see uh... Sorry  

I don't know how to pronounce your name but  hello to you in India. And hello to all of my  

fans. Well, hello to all of Reallife English fans  in India. It's great to see so many people here.  

Fantastic! Hi from Turkey. Hi from Mexico. Hello  Mexico. As people if you don't know I am Ollie.  

I am one of the RealLife English fluency coaches  and every friday we have live English lessons and  

I'm from Australia but I currently live  in Brazil. Okay let's get started so  

this is the conversation that you just saw a lot  of information, right? And if you were scratching  

your head thinking what's going on then don't  worry I'm going to teach you all that today, okay?  

So, we're gonna start off with showing,  going by part by part with the conversation  

okay so we have a few of the first uh we have  the start of the conversation and I want you  

when you see this I want  you to write in the comments  

what you think it means, okay? So, we have  "All g, bff? What does 'g' mean 'all g'  

if you know what the abbreviation means I  want you to write it in the comments below.

Let's see what people think okay so this is an  abbreviation of a word that people might know  

yeah we've got the answer here all good that's  perfect so all good g means good and remember  

this is really informal English that we use when  we're texting on Whatsapp or texting our friends  

in general so that's great to see that people  have know the answer to that. Okay what about bff?  

who would you call your bff? and you say it  like bff you don't say "bffff" no it's bff

Awesome yeah okay we have an answer here  

we have best friends forever exactly so 'All g  bff?' when I say it I want you at home to practice  

saying it as well, so you can know how to use  it and how to say it as well. so you might use  

this to your best friend obviously best friend  forever. awesome best friends forever and that's  

the answer there what about 'bffl' so if you  have your 'bff' here then who is your 'bffl'  

um it's kind of like a more extreme and  again you don't say bffffl you say bffl

oh Reallife English is asking who is our  bff okay oh and David says "I am, Agnes"  

I want to know who our bffl is that's an  interesting question. I need some water.

No idea people are people don't know all right so  bffl is best friends for life and it's a little  

bit more extreme than bff and you might hear  this like when you are at school and you say  

oy or gbff what's up bffl and you use this on  the playground or something like that so best  

friends for life let's continue on 'nm' so andrea  said 'oh gee what's up bffl' and I said 'nm'  

'nm' hmm what about you nm what about you  good excellent not much okay so you can see  

we've taken two words and we've made  it into an abbreviation nm fantastic.  

Awesome awesome awesome lots of people are saying  this and what about the last one we have what  

about you I pretty much gave that away because  you actually can't say this like it doesn't make  

sense so I see a lot of people actually saying  what about you so that's one you can't actually  

like with nm not much you can't actually say  it's what about you so fantastic everybody  

and I want to know if you want to understand how  natives really speak and how natives really text  

then you might like our native immersion course  this is a 41 week course in which you will learn  

how connected speech works and you will immerse  yourself in the English language to take your  

English beyond the classroom so you can start  living your English and as always the best part is  

you can try it for free today with our three part  power learning series I have left the link in the  

description below so when this live is finished  make sure you click on that okay let's continue  

Zara says I have no bff we at Reallife  English are your bff we are everybody's bff  

yeah awesome everybody let's continue on okay so  the second part of the conversation let's make it  

a little bigger it's great to see 151 people  here so Andrea said just at home and now I'm  

listening to Justin Bieber do you think andrea  listens to Justin Bieber or do you think that  

I wrote this conversation and I'm the one who  listens to Justin Bieber I love Justin Bieber  

is this a new channel no guillermo this is  not a new channel uh we have been around  

for a while now but I'm glad you have  found it welcome to Reallife English so  

I think this is an answer to andrea does  not listen to Justin Bieber I don't know  

andrea are you watching do you listen to Justin  Bieber okay lmao or I would say laugh my ass off  

laugh my ass off yeah or laughing my ass off  laughing my ass off or laugh my ass off it's like

I'm laughing at the fact that she is listening to  Bieber Bieber but don't laugh at that because you  

know I love Justin Bieber I really love Justin  Bieber andrea says yes I do I didn't know that  

about you andrea but now I do so that's fantastic  i've never i've already seen laugh my ass off  

but don't remember so here if you say lmao  it sounds a little bit unnatural to me so  

when you're using this and you want to say it it's  laugh my ass off and you can use it in in speech  

and that's a different way of saying hahaha  okay awesome all right oh we have friends  

episodes can you be my bff Ollie oh boy  oopsie that was a bit naughty that one  

okay b day I think I can see people already  commenting what b day is and yes this is  

quite simple birthday you could ask your friend  what are you doing for your b day and it means  

what are you doing for your birthday and we use  this quite a lot awesome let's continue on why

why I think people might already know this one  so are you gonna go to jessica's birthday why  

why exactly it literally means why it's  just a shorter lazy way of using it and I  

think abbreviations are really important  these days because if you use twitter  

you can only have a certain amount of characters  which are letters so I think abbreviations became  

popular in in the twitter way in the twitter  world when we had to shorten what we wanted to say  

okay so yeah we've got lots of people saying  why which is fantastic fantastic I'm loving  

the comments everybody that's really really  great okay what about jw I pronounce it like jw  

or jw you can also say jw but you can also  say jw jw you don't want to get fomo do you  

I don't know what jw means or jw  depends what how you want to use it  

okay we have a few answers but  try and think a little bit more  

about this jw jw if I point to my head jw

oh we have a lot of here we go yeah we got the  good the correct answer just wondering if you're  

just wondering it means you want to know what  that other person is thinking or what excuse me  

pardon what the other person is thinking  or what the other person wants to do  

so jw jw where are you in the world just wondering  where are you in the world okay fantastic that's  

so great well done everybody and the last one  is fomo do you get fomo I know I certainly do

let's see what people think that fomo is a really  common one that everybody uses these days actually  

my cousin who is I think she's 25 she always  has fomo whenever I post an instagram story or  

whenever I post something she's always saying oh  my gosh fomo I really I really wish I was where  

you are yeah awesome we have no shoe no excuse the  pronunciation who says excuse me again I'm sorry  

about the coughing fear of missing out and if you  have a fear of missing out it means that you don't  

want to miss out on what is happening you want to  be in that place where the people are are enjoying  

themselves so fear of missing out put your hand  up if you ever get fomo I know I certainly do  

it's so great to see 170 people here I want  to get to 200 can we get to 200 concurrent  

viewers in a live make sure you make sure you  message make sure you um make sure you share it  

with your friends all right good let's go on to  the next part it says lol I never get fomo ugh  

idk or I don't know I'm ho or imho it starts  so early I want to sleep all morning tbh

so listen to how I say it lol fomo idk you can  say I'm ho or imho and tbh so what did we get  

for lol ah yes everybody knows this one laugh out  loud so you have laugh out loud and then you have  

laugh my ass off and it kind of means the same  thing but like if you're laughing my ass off  

it means you're laughing a lot more okay so  that's great lots and lots of comments really  

good everybody everybody's doing a great job  okay laugh out loud or laughing out loud idk  

idk what this means does anybody  know what idk means hmm I'm not sure

i don't know fantastic well done seville I  don't know fantastic that's an easy one I think  

what about imho or imho I think this is a little  bit difficult difficult because it can also be I m  

o imo as well let's move on I'm o I am ho anybody  know this is a little bit difficult and actually  

I didn't know what this one meant until I started  working and teaching at Reallife English so this  

was new to me ah awesome we have the correct  answer in my humble opinion or in my opinion if  

you use imo and you can use this to basically give  an opinion but to not say that your opinion is  

necessarily the correct opinion it's what you  think but you kind of oh being polite about  

your opinion so that's great that people are doing  that and I see this a lot in various text messages  

and threads and and Whatsapp conversations as  well great and tbh tbh I think this is an easy  

one I think people might get this and we use this  all the time franco marini to be honest exactly  

so Imho Imho and tbh are quite similar except  tbh is a little bit more stronger to use  

so someone might say to you what do you think of  this shirt do you like my shirt and they might say  

Imho or imho it's a little it's not very nice or  tbh it doesn't look good on you so we can it's  

a little bit more like intense or a little bit  stronger okay and I can just I just saw a question  

um is this live saved yes this live is saved there  is a playlist with all of the live lessons so when  

the lesson finishes head on over to the Reallife  English page and you can watch all of the live  

lessons there and I want to let you know that we  are developing our app it's a podcast and speaking  

app and the podcast that is up and running and  every podcast that Andrea Ethan and I do now has  

a transcript so you can listen and read at the  same time and if you want to check out and try  

out podcast and speaking app I have put the link  in the description below it's really great because  

you'll be able to practice your listening and  you're reading at the same time and we are also  

getting ready to launch the speaking part of the  app which will let you connect with anybody from  

all parts of the world actually just this  week on wednesday I had a conversation with  

people in France in people in Algeria people  in Czech Republic I think I spoke to somebody  

in Vietnam so it's a really powerful tool that  I'm really excited to check out okay oh ROLF btw  

you're so lazy whatevs yolo I just noticed that  I didn't bold your you are and that means you are  

so I didn't bold that one that was a trick  question okay let's continue on fantastic  

yes the app is free I can see people asking that  question the app is free what about ROLF ROLF  

oh I'm ROLFing you might hear that ROLF

okay sorry computer technology ROLF  good roll on the floor laughing or  

rolling on the floor laughing and actually  my Canadian friend introduced this to me  

I would tell a joke and she would say ROLF or  ROLFing I'm like what are you talking about  

and she said it's roll on the floor laughing  fantastic everybody what about the next one  

btw btw is how I would say with like an s sound  at the end or you can also say btw as well oh yes  

nice job Lucy by the way well done by the  way now if you're liking this live lesson and  

if you want me to continue to give live  lessons I need your help I really do  

if you are not subscribed make sure you hit the  subscribe button and the bell down below for a  

live lesson every friday and also hit the like  button because it's really good to promote the  

the video to new learners so if you love my  live lessons make sure you hit the like button  

okay next one whatevs so this is like a shortened  contraction or an abbreviation for a longer word  

let's see if I keep pressing the wrong button on  my computer let's see if anyone knows what whatevs  

and you use whatevs when you kind of like  don't really care about someone's opinion  

so going back to this shirt people might say tbh  I don't like it and you can say whatevs I'm buying  

it means I don't care what you're thinking I'm  gonna buy it fantastic we have Leelee Jackson  

who says whatever and that's exactly what  it means and what about yo yolo yolo yolo  

y-olo no it's yolo yolo and this is  really true this is really true for

everything you only live once well done to sarvin  you only live once and that's really true you  

do only live once and people might use this to  say like oh are you gonna come to are you gonna  

come to the bar or you're going to come to the  restaurant on Friday and say no I'm a little tired  

and they might say to you come on yolo means  you only live once and you only sometimes have  

one opportunity to do something so it's really  cool um and people use it quite a lot in in um

excuse me people use yolo quite a lot in in  daily conversations all right we're almost  

there if you want to go don't forget to rsvp  asap because they need to buy the food just  

let me know did you notice like you  can't you can't make lmk like lmk  

it's let me know I wonder if any of our French  listeners or French followers know what rsvp  

is is there anyone watching or anyone who  speaks French do you know what rsv means

okay Neil that is a good response

yes could all you're getting ahead of yourself  there you're answering the next question  

that do any French people know what this is so the  translation is crepene civo play excuse my French  

it's not very good but it be basically means to  respond uh please reponder is respond civil play  

is please in French wow teaching English teaching  French what next Portuguese Spanish just ask me  

okay syllable player we have uh Carol  on uh Facebook saying civil play  

means please right respond please and that means  the person wants to let you the person wants you  

to tell them if you're going you will see  rsvp on birthday and wedding invitations  

okay and i've seen a few people say asap and  that is as soon as possible and that means  

that they want you to tell them your answer  as soon as you can as soon as possible awesome  

I can see if you want to hear olly speaking  French you need to check out our last podcast  

yeah we did a podcast on words from other  languages and I say like there's different ones

we said oh my gosh I didn't know most of these  words well now you do and that's great that you  

are learning with us awesome awesome awesome okay  let's continue on because you hear this a lot in  

our podcast I think ethan uses this instead  of the full form like all the time whenever  

I'm doing the transcripts for the podcast I always  have to change the word because ethan always ethan  

always uses this yeah good we have we have because  yeah exactly right and it can also be spelt c a u  

s e with a little dash at the front um as well I  just had a question do you speak French I studied  

French at university but I do not speak French  anymore I speak more spanish portuguese these days  

okay lmk or let me know as I said at the start you  can't really say lmk it's let me know but it's a  

nice way to shorten a word so that's fantastic 194  come on six more six more okay and the last part  

of the conversation is d-dubs i'll dm you next  week cool got to go ttyl anyone know what d dubs  

means you can also say d w d dubs or d  w I say d dubs because I think I'm cool

but I think um I think d dw is also very correct

awesome let's see what people are saying here  we go diego diego davie and I think that sounds  

like you're from brazil maybe diego davie says  don't worry and that is correct don't worry  

dm i'll dm you next week if someone slides  into your dms maybe they are talking to you on  

instagram or something like that so what does dm  mean here we go direct message and you might also  

yeah diego davi is from um brazil what what part  of brazil are you in I'm in Rio de janeiro at the  

moment so dm is direct message and you might also  hear people say pm which is a private message so  

dm or pm okay fantastic all right let's continue  got to go now I think this one is a little bit  

older when I was growing up we used msn which  is was a like a a Whatsapp kind of talk online  

excuse me and we also we always used to use g2g or  got2go and yeah lucy you are correct gotta go got  

to go I have to go it means I need to leave right  now so that's fantastic well done and the last one  

is ttyl t-t-y-l um does anyone know what  this means oh yeah I think we've got one  

answer but I'm gonna wait for somebody  new who I haven't spoken to fantastic

talk to you later and that's exactly  what that one means talk to you later  

now everybody you have just learned  26 abbreviations that we use when on

Whatsapp when you're text messaging when you're  even writing things on Facebook and on twitter  

uh did you learn anything in today's lesson  if you learned something new make sure you  

hit that like button subscribe to our channel and  I want to say thank you so much for joining me in  

today's live lesson and to as I said to help us at  Reallife English it really sup it really helps the  

channel if you hit the like button if you want to  continue to see these Reallife English lessons and  

get your participation in so I want to say thank  you so much um I'm going to remove this I can see  

I want to share nilra nilra's so she is in our  fluency circle actually she's gone through the  

native immersion course or the fluent with friends  course and she says amazing I learned a lot now  

I'm ready to text on Whatsapp awesome everybody I  want to say thank you so much for joining me today  

if you have a question for me make  sure you leave it in the comments  

after the live is finished and yeah thank you so  much let's do an aww yeah so everyone hands up  

and on three I'm gonna do an aww yeah three two  one aww yeah see you next week everybody bye bye.