Hi and welcome back to Love English, I'm Leila and today i have got a really really, really
simple but I think exceptionally useful lesson for you whether you're a native speaker of English or
a non-native this lesson might just come in handy and you may even want to share this lesson with
your parents or even your grandparents! Yes today we are looking at acronyms, specifically for this
thing yes acronyms that we use commonly in text messages tweets on even instagram
any kind of social media language over the past 10 -20 years particularly the last 10 years
has massively changed all because of this little thing why well we want to speak faster we want to
get our message across more clearly and i'll say it again faster quicker that's what it's all about
we don't want to waste time texting people sending long text messages with long drawn out spellings
and full words when a couple of letters will suffice so before we get started with the lesson
i'm actually going to share with you a private text between Sabrah and I, here it is have a look
you'll notice that we've used quite a few acronyms and what i want you to do is by the end of the
lesson you should understand what all of these acronyms are and you should be able to translate
this text message into full correct english so in the comments box below i have put this exact
text and i want you to copy paste and re-type the acronyms into the correct word or words so there's
a little bit of a love english challenge for you today and of course do try and make an effort
to comment using these acronyms in the comments section below i'll respond with a few of my own
and if i miss any acronyms out that you think are really important when it comes to texting
do share them there's quite a few here that i didn't know before that i found really
entertaining and quite useful to know so see how many you can teach me now before we get started
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goes on behind the scenes that love english right on with the lesson it's time to text or tweet
okay number one this is really kind of obvious to night so clearly two
if any of you have realized is actually a homophone of two or two so therefore it works
really well when texting whether that's tonight or tomorrow we often use it to abbreviate to shorten
the word and to use in text writing so as well as tomorrow tonight you also might have g2g got
to go there's actually three in that first one for you i'm free tonight got dinner plans number two
e f n b f n anyone take a guess as to what that means buy for now bye for now
so at the end of a text you might just want to sign off with bfn bye for now chat later
number three i feel a bit stupid for not knowing this one but it does seem pretty
obvious b c and no we're not referring to before christ time period we're actually saying because
because got to go because it's late number four i think this is quite an obvious one i've seen this
used a lot btw btw by the way by the way so we use this when we want to kind of add something
that perhaps we didn't think someone knew um tell them something that we think is quite important
by the way it's mum's birthday tomorrow so it's usually an add-on it's something extra
when you might have been texting and talking about something else number five see ya
u y o u often is abbreviated to ya and to be fair when we speak we do actually usually say yeah it
was lovely to see you it was lovely to see you but we also use acronyms to shorten this down further
when speaking see ya and again you can kind of understand where a lot of these acronyms come from
c is a homophone of c essentially the letter sounds like the word so see ya right number
six another nice simple one and again one that i wouldn't use but i've definitely seen used
lmk lmk let me know so tell me let me know if you can't make it tonight let me know if
you can't make it tonight okay number seven now i'm sure it used to be pm private message but
it seems like nowadays everyone's using dm dm me direct message me so send a private message
not shared on facebook or instagram dm me for more information you can dm us on instagram if
you go and follow us there right number eight now i actually discovered this one when i was
creating a lesson for my media students at the university and i loved it i thought it was great
i thought very useful probably more for my age range and above i'm not that old but still not
young enough to really class myself as the kind of youtube generation so this one e l i 5 e l i
5 kind of looks like a top secret government code for something but in fact it means explain like
i'm five so how would you explain something to a five-year-old you'd simplify it you wouldn't want
to make it too complicated so where there's a big complex plan going on we're going to meet at 7 30
but then sarah's meeting us at eight and then we're thinking to go for a drink before we have
dinner and i'll just be like okay just explain like i'm five e l i five what time do i need to be
where keep it simple so try using that in the comment section below so i think it's brilliant
um you might feel that way about grammar sometimes you might want to write on some of my conditional
lessons eli5 explain like i'm five the grammar gives you a headache and you just want to keep
it as simple as possible okay i'm not very comfortable using this one i've never come
across it before but apparently it's quite common ftw ftw for the win so this is typically used as
kind of a rallying cry like cheering for someone or encouraging someone or as kind of an
exclamation when you've done something when you've completed something when you've achieved something
i've almost finished my essay one more late night ftw for the win so yeah let me know have you heard
that one before or is that a new one for you i don't think it's as common in the uk as maybe it
is in america but i could be wrong right number 10 a brilliant one fomo and we do say fomo it's
become common language you can almost refer to it it's quite a nice expression and does have a lot
of meaning fear of missing out so fear of missing out you don't want to be not included in something
she was asking me what time we were meeting tomorrow night do i sense a bit of fomo did
you want to join us for the cinema tonight number 11. f-w-i-w f-w-i-w i do feel like some of these
get a little bit more complicated than they need to be but essentially for what it's worth for what
it's worth and when we say for what it's worth it might be that we're trying to comfort someone
share our opinion and just say look this is how i feel this is what i think for what it's worth
for what it's worth i thought your meal was delicious last night thank you so much and
that could be in response to someone saying they didn't like someone's cooking for what it's worth
i think you're doing a great job okay number 12. i already snuck this in earlier g to g got to go but
you could also use g t g i've seen that as well got to go meaning i need to leave like now 13
idk simple you know it actually i don't know it i don't know i d k what time are we meeting tonight
idk i don't know oh number 14 i l y i love you very sweet so nice and simple add that on the end
probably not what you want to write to a girlfriend you should make an effort and actually
text the whole thing guys because sometimes these acronyms do come across as being a bit lazy
number 15 imo or imho in my opinion or in my humble opinion meaning it's just my opinion you
don't have to believe everything i say or agree with me but in my opinion or in my humble opinion
i think you should dump him so a really nice way of sharing your opinion in a text or a tweet or
an instapost i do think on insta people tend not to use these acronyms
so much it does tend to be whatsapp more than anything i r l another one i didn't know
again showing my age but i r l in real life now in this case you're referring to the world
outside of the internet you know where you can actually see and touch people so irl in real life
it looks really big in photos but irl the mona lisa is tiny number 17 jk no we're not talking
about the writer of the harry potter series but in fact we're referring to just kidding just kidding
so when you're joking when you're not being serious you might just want to write jk i do think
that some of these acronyms can be really really useful because in text messages i'm sure some of
you have had it before people have misunderstood what you said so using some of these acronyms just
to clarify that you are joking and of course using strategically placed emojis laughter a smile sad
face it really creates the tone of your message and people should hopefully understand clearly
what you're saying and there's no miscommunication okay number 18 and i'm really not going to spend
much time on this lol lol we can say lol but please don't say in real life it makes me crazy
laugh out loud be careful there are some people that have actually misunderstood and thought this
meant lots of love that kind of confusion can be a little bit embarrassing in a text message
now 19 and 20 i'm putting these separately because i do think one is much stronger than
the other l m a o l m a o laughing my yes your ass off but 20 l m f a much stronger
and probably not to use with your grandmother maybe but essentially laughing my and we can say
freaking i think a lot of people say friggin or freaking as replacement obviously of the rude word
the ruder swear word laughing my freaking ass off so there's two variations there for you 19 or 20.
basically you're saying something is really extremely funny i tend to just stick with lol
because nothing really makes me laugh my freaking ass off not really 21 nbd
no big deal quite nice particularly if someone's worried about your response i'm really sorry i
can't make tonight at the cinema mbd and maybe a thumbs up or a smiley face would show that you
don't mind it's not a big problem and then not to worry too much so in that case we're using
it genuinely to say something isn't a problem it's not a big problem a big deal but it can also be to
downplay a brag or be a bit more sarcastic about something you know i got an a today in english nbd
so down playing the boast that you're sharing the brag but in a more sarcastic way
similarly np no problem no problem if we meet at seven tonight rather than six np number 23 nsw
number 23 nsfw you've got to get these out right nsfw not safe for work so you might put this
in the title of an email perhaps or at the top of your text message so in case you're sending
something commit i suppose rude and someone you know is at work then they'll be careful
not to let their boss or anyone around them see it nsw nsfw not safe for work never heard that
one before have you guys is it one that you would actually use seems a bit weird to me number 24
nvm nvm never mind so never mind you're essentially saying oh not a problem or don't worry
it's okay now have you seen my trainers never mind they're under the bed number 25 omg okay i
use this one this one i do use oh my god or if you want to be less blasphemous it could be oh my gosh
we often replace god for gosh some people can be offended when you use god in this way omg it's
used as an exclamation to show that you're shocked surprised or even excited about something omg you
got the job o t o h on the other hand so there we're simply using a fancy butt we're looking at
contrast so we're using it to compare two sides of an argument so i usually teach on the other
hand in academic writing but here we're using it for text writing you wouldn't use any of these
in an essay or a formal letter email anything like that it's purely for informal communication
texting in this way it's so late on the other hand i could watch a few more episodes of cobra kai
have you seen that on netflix check it out it is so good guys 27 omw omw on my way that's actually
much quicker than writing coming or nearly there i'm going to use that next time on my way and see
if anyone actually knows what i'm talking about so omw on my way nice quick easier than having to
type out coming nearly there rofl could you say it like that probably not rofl rolling on the floor
laughing this really should have been put with the others but never mind it's here now rolling
on the floor laughing now that really does suggest that you have found something incredibly funny
and really when lol or lma oh hold on i can't remember all of these now when the other two
are just not strong enough rolling on the floor laughing you're literally you're out of control
you're rolling on the floor number 30. i didn't know this rt retweet retweet so you can put that
and i suppose it must be a hashtag as well when you want someone to retweet re-share what you have
just said i'm assuming it is more just for twitter rather than instagram or anything else 31 tbh
to be honest when you're really trying to express yourself and say you know this is how i feel
tbh now someone did this with me the other day and i actually found it really irritating and thought
to be honest i'd rather you make the effort and text me a full sentence if you're not happy
32 th x thanks because x often does make the x sound so thanks thanks t i a thanks in advance
so you're thanking someone before they've actually done something for you do you mind picking up my
dry cleaning tonight tia 34 tmi one that actually you'll hear used because we're basically saying
too much information you've shared and told us too much we don't need to know the details
about your operation or how much you threw up last night after drinking too much alcohol
t m i 35 t t y l t t y l yep that's right talk to you later so a nice way to sign off again
talk to you later t t l 36 i should have known this one because i have been working from home
for the past few months wfh wfh working from home nice and simple lets people know where you are
easy and i've definitely heard people say like fomo yolo you only live once really nice come
on let's stay out a bit later y-o-l-o you only live once number 39 ysk you should know so when
you expect someone to know the information that you're asking it's your mother's birthday ysk
and number 40 actually i don't have a number 40 it's over to you i want you to share an acronym
with me that i probably don't know don't make it up make sure it's a real one one that you've seen
used one that you've used and share it in the comments section below for other people to see
make sure that you write the acronym and then the words and perhaps a sentence to go with it to give
us a clear context of how to use it and that's it guys don't forget as well our love english
challenge try and decipher mine and sabra's text from all of these acronyms that i've just
gone through with you i hope there are a few new ones that you didn't know before there certainly
were quite a few for me while i was doing all the research for this lesson doesn't mean i'm going to
use many of them and remember they are for texting tweeting instagram social media informal english
written english try not to speak using them and definitely don't use them in any kind of formal
writing that's it for now nice simple easy lesson and of course do share any lesson suggestions down
in the comment section below it's a new year we need new ideas thanks for watching again bye