A Guide to Text Messaging Abbreviations

Getting a little worried because you have seen some very strange things on your teenager's phone? It may even seem like hieroglyphics to you, but rest assured it makes perfect sense.

Due to the limited amount of space, abbreviations have become a necessity when communicating by text messages. You may think it is something you will never understand, but in reality most of them make sense and it can be a lot of fun. Once you get a few of the basics down the rest comes a little easier.

For example, "howru?" "gr8" "wayd?" "nuthin" "brb" "k" "g2g" "cya", translates to "How are you?" "great" "what are you doing?" "nothing" "be right back" 'ok" "got to go" "see ya". So, something that would normally be 65 characters has been cut down to 30 allowing you to fit more conversation into each text.

Many of these you already use in your everyday conversations, such as ASAP, as soon as possible, and BYO, bring your own. You may already use 24/7, meaning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as well as @, meaning at. You have probably already used a few others such as thx, meaning thanks, txt meaning text or maybe wk meaning week and wknd meaning weekend.

There are many different abbreviations, some with more than one possibility such as "imho" can mean "in my honest opinion" or "in my humble opinion", but they basically mean the same thing.

Now that you have a little better understanding of text messaging abbreviations you may come up with a few of your own. In the meantime, ttfn (ta ta for now).