:-)**Abbreviations use karo, maja ni life**:-). Review on Tips on Text Messaging Abbreviations

I thought that this time round, I’d write a review on something original, not the usual food, films, books and fashion…(wow, I never quite realised how narrow-minded that was!)

Anyway, escaping from that, I decided to bring you a review related to the garam garam (no…this is not going back to my review on Ganguly and the chai…shhh) topics of today…Chatting and Texting

I am sure, that nearly all of you must either chat with your friends on MSN Messenger, or Yahoo Messenger OR text them using your newest, flashy Nokia phone. Well obviously, that’s the craze of the younger generation today (I hope I don’t sound like a dadi :-)!) Well anyway, we all have to use abbreviations whilst we are texting or chatting for a number of reasons:

1. Because we want to reveal everything in our minds immediately or as soon as possible.

2. Because we don’t want to waste time by writing out long words, when our friends could just as easily understand abbreviations. (Have you ever noticed how long abbreviations are? What’s the abbreviation of abbreviation?? Please tell me guys :-)!)

3. Because we don’t want to waste text message space, as on most phones only 150 characters are allowed per message, and we would be wasting valuable writing space to tell your friend about the last cute guy you saw by the corner shop! (Oh, forgot to do that ;))

4. Because our hands hurt! Duh! We don’t want to make our hands ache so much that we eventually feel so tired that we need to rest, however, our hands still don’t recover after two days, indeed they start to go yellow and we visit our doctor. The doctor runs a few tests and recommends us to a specialist, who tells us that we have…gangrene! Eventually, our hands will have to be amputated and all because of those deathly things we call long words! (Ok, a bit extreme but I think you get the point ;)!)

Well, those are the reasons that we use abbreviations. But I can see the question arising on your lips…which abbreviations? For those who are not familiar with them, abbreviations have developed over the past five years, and there are six common yet essential ones that every person who texts or chats needs to know.

1. LOL Lol is an expression of humour or enjoyment. When taken out of it’s abbreviation it simply means laughing out loud. You generally use this when your friend says something that amuses you, basically it’s the same as laughing!

2. GTG We say ‘gtg’ when we have to say the fond farewell to our fellow friends! It is the abbreviation for got to go and if you are in a rush, it is perfect for saying a goodbye to your friends!

3. BRB This is used when your mum/dad/sister/brother/husband/boyfriend/neighbour/anyone else who it might be is calling you for a second and you don’t want to be rude to your friends. It stands for be right back!

4. BTW This is used when you want to stroll the conversation away from awkward questions asked such as, “Was that you I saw last night banging your head on the wall?” or similar. It stands for by the way.

5. NP We write this when your friend has so gratefully and graciously thanked you for your selfless deeds or just generally fabulous nature, or just having your presence in their midst. It stands for no problem!

6. TC We say this when we truthfully and honestly want to make sure that our friends do not get run over by a 10 feet truck and break both of their legs. It stands for take care and we use it to show we are very caring people.

There are also usually the letter replacements that everyone uses, here are some:

C Standing for ‘see’

Y Standing for ‘why’

B Standing for ‘be’ or ‘bee’ (as in I got stung yesterday…ow!)

K Standing for ‘ok’

And numbers such as:

4: for/four

2: to/two/too

And some commonly used smileys:

:-) Used to smile

:-( Used to frown

;-) Used to wink

:-P Used to stick your tongue out at someone, as in I am so much prettier than you :-P

8-) Used to roll your eyes at someone, as in when they ask, “Why do cars need alarms?” (shh…long story!)

A downside of abbreviations are that sometimes you get used to them so much, that you begin to include them into documents which you need official and proper English for! So I must warn you not to have this adath, it is not helpful!!! But then again you do have spellcheck! ;-)

Not to end on a bad note and, to prove my point let me completely abbreviate my last paragraph!

N so u c my mouthshutians, how completely useful abbreviations cn b! We all need dem and luv dem, so y not use dem 4 a completely easy n stress free life!

(Juice piyo, caram khelo, abbreviations use karo…maja ni life!)

And I end with a :-)

Don’t 4get 2 RRC!!!!