Dealing with Text Message Acronyms and Shortcuts

by Lee Brannon

Frankly the English language is changing. Thanks to chat rooms, Instant Message programs, email, blogs, text windows for interactive video game players and cell phones we all suddenly find ourselves confronted with letters in groups that are not recognizable. These groups are text shortcuts and they are now nearly as common as the common English word. Whether we like it or not it is now an ingrained part of our culture and we either embrace it or fail to communicate.

Some of this has been driven by simple peer pressure in younger generations. Knowing the code makes you feel “in”. Unfortunately many people carry this with them when they enter the job market. This has effected business communications in such a way that many companies are having to setup guidelines and special training classes, Not to mention the fact that supervisors are having to learn these new Acronyms whether they approve of them or not.

It is not as alien as one might think. When you reply to an email what does your email program automatically do with the subject line? It puts RE: in front of it. Of course we all recognize this as “Regarding.” Another example is the RSVP. We all know this right off as a request to respond. The only real difference is that the text shortcut has progressed to the point where multiple instances of these letter combinations show up in the same communication. It has gone far enough now that there are many of people who carry cell phones but never talk on the phone.

 They communicate almost entirely through text messages. There are many reasons for this and I’ll leave this up to the linguist and psychologist , but probably the best explanation is that using text messaging gives them the option of not replying or taking the time to think about what they want to say. Good or bad we are all going to have to join in.

The Basic Rules.

 Keep in mind that people won't always get what you type. As a matter of fact I would have to look half of my own list up if you sent them to me because I don't see them often and I don't use more than a dozen of them. Worse, your shortcuts may be misread. Keep the use of acronyms and shortcuts in your messages to a minimum. It makes it easier to read.

There are several places on the net that will allow you to look up shortcuts you do not understand. Several of them claim to be the “biggest” or "Largest" list. I recommend staying away from those. They seem to focus on the foul language use and tend to be filled with Acronyms for every common phrase uttered by mankind. For example, if someone writes ABIHIWTITB in place of “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush”, are you really going to recognize it?

In most cases a text shortcut is either an acronym or a combination of letters and numbers that sound like the word. In many cases it is two shortcuts combined. For example CU (See You) and L8R (later) can be combined to make “See you Later.” I have prepared a list of about 100 of the most common text shortcuts based on my own experience and from browsing many other list. This should be the basis to help anyone get started. Personally I didn’t think I used that many myself but after tracking my text messages, emails and website comments I found that I actually use about 10 of these on a regular basis.

Note to Parents: My list purposefully left out the shortcuts related to dating, sex and other inappropriate shortcuts. Under age children have many codes specific to them and I am not an expert. For example, CD9 means that you are in the room with them. If you need to find these shortcuts I suggest that you go to a search engine and do a search on “text message abbreviations for parents” This should provide you with several good sites and articles listing these codes.

Text Message Shortcuts Chart :

Acronym	Meaning	More Meanings or additional Info
TTFN	Ta Ta For Now	Origin: Winnie the Pooh
411	Information	Origin: Phone company information number
?	What?
2morrow	Tomorrow
2nite	Tonight
4COL	For Crying Out Loud
5O or 5-O	Five-O (Police)	Origin: TV Show Hawaii Five-O
ADR	Address	Sometimes Implies the question “What is your Address?”
AFAIAC	As Far as I am Concerned
AFC	Away From the Computer
AKA	Also Known AS
ASAP	As Soon As Possible
ASAYGT	As Soon as you get this	Could also be ASAUGT
AUC	Aren't You Clever
AYK	As You Know
B4	Before
BFF	Best Friends Forever
BFN	Bye for Now
BRB	Be Right Back
BTW	By the Way
BZ	Busy
CID	Consider It Done
CM	Call Me
CTO	Check This Out
CUL8R	See You
CWOT	Complete Waste of Time
CYE	Check your e-Mail
CYM	Check your Mail
CYT	See You Tomorrow
DETI	Don't Even Think It
DNBL8	Do Not Be Late
EMA	Email Address (?)	Sometimes Implies the question “What is your Email Address?”
EOD	End of Day
EOM	End of Message
ETA	Estimated Time of Arrival
EZ	Easy
F2F	Face to Face
FDL	Falling Down Laughing
FITB	Fill In the Blanks
FOAF	Friend of a Friend
FOFL	Falling on the Floor Laughing
FTR	For the Record
FUBAR	Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition
FWIW	For What its Worth
FYI	For Your Information
G1	Good One
GF	Girl Friend
GFI	Go For It
GI	Google It	Isn't it amazing how much Google has become a part of our lives?
GIGO	Garbage In Garbage Out	Origin: Computer Programming
GMTA	Great Minds Think Alike
GTG	Got to Go
HIG	How's it Going
HTH	Hope This Helps
IM	Instant Message
JJ	Just Joking
JM2C	Just My Two Cents
JMO	Just My Opinion
K	OK or Okay
KYFC	Keep your Fingers Crossed
L8R	Later
LMK	Let Me Know
LOL	Laughing Out Loud	Also used as Lots of Luck
MMB	Message Me Back
MOF	Matter of Fact
MSG	Message
NAC	Not A Clue
NC	No Comment
NP	No Problem
OIC	Oh, I See
OMG	Oh, my Gosh
OO	Over and Out
OST	On Second thought
PFD	Putting Phone Down	Similar to AFC
PLS	Please
RE	Regarding
RSVP	Please respond
RTM	Read the Manual
SLM	See Last Message
SNAFU	Situation Normal All Fouled Up
SOW	Speaking of Which
SSDD	Same Stuff Different Day
SYS	See You Soon
TAFN	That's All For Now
THX	Thanks
TNTL	Trying Not To Laugh
TOY	Thinking Of You
TTE	Till the End	General meaning till the end of time, but can mean Till the end of whatever subject is being discussed.
TTTT	To Tell The Truth
U	You
U2	You too
UOK	Are you OK?
VM	Voicemail
WE	Whatever
WTG	Way to Go!
WTMI	Way Too Much Information
WYM	Watch Your Mouth
XOXOXO	Kisses and Hugs
Y	Why
YGLT	Your Gonna Love This
YW	Your Welcome

I have a suggestion for the Wireless phone companies, chat room program authors and Instant Message providers. Build in a translator for these terms! That way when people type AFAIAC and push the translator button it changes to “As far as I am concerned.”  JM2C