
In recent years, there appeared lots of communicational channels and instruments in our lives. Humanity can’t imagine their reality without personal computers, laptops, mobile phones and smartphones, and without apps that allow to communicate using these devices. It is logical, that the language itself changes with the introduction of new ways of sending messages. Our essay writing service greatpaper.co.uk would like to offer you making your English lexicon wider by getting familiar with Internet and SMS abbreviations and shortened word. Actualize your knowledge with us!
In modern English, there are many words that appeared due to a new communicational environment. Internet slang has its own dictionary which is often unknown to people who are not involved into it. This slang is often similar to SMS-language. There are many English acronyms in it (abbreviations formed with starting sounds of words in the whole phrase, for instance “lol”).
It is easy to know the reasons for wide usage of shortenings in Internet or SMS communication. This messaging can be:
- Synchronic, which happens in a real-time mode;
- Non-synchronic, when the companion’s answer is not obligatory to be instant.
The first type is special for messaging services like ICQ or Skype. It is needed to write fast in order to support the conversation, and shortenings fit there best. They replace separate words, their parts and combinations, or even full English phrases.
Non-synchronic messaging is used in e-mails or SMS messages, for instance. Here you are able to write an answer calmly, devoting to it more time than to direct online-messaging. That is why English acronyms are much rarer to be met in e-mails. Though, in SMS messages they are frequent. Here another aspect of communication is the cause: limited length of the message, and the necessity to pay every single post that was sent.
English Internet Slang and SMS Messaging Examples
For both writing the SMS and network messaging, English letters, numbers, word combinations and abbreviations are used quite universally. For instance, if there is a number used to shorten the word length (sk8 – skate), then you need to read letters as usual and to read the number as it sounds.
Number | Meaning | Examples |
2 | Particle «to», word «too», number two, sound combination [tə] | me 2 (me too), 2day (today), going 2 wrk (going to work) |
4 | Preposition “for”, number four, combination [fo] | 4ever (forever), gud 4 u (good for you) |
8 | number eight, sound combination [eit] | m8 (mate), l8er (later) |
The same rule works for letters. If the letter stands separately (and this position is not typical for it in regular writing), then you need to consider its pronunciation (C U – see you). There are nuances as well.
Letter | Meaning | Examples |
B | verb “be”, noun “bee”, combination [bi] | b there (be there), 2b or not 2b (to be or not to be) |
N | ”and” like in “rock’n’roll” | y n u (yes, and you?), |
R | verb “are”, sounds [a] and [r] | r u ok (are you ok?), r8 (right) |
C | verb “see”, [si] | I c (I see) |
U | “you”, sounds [Λ] and [u] | luv u (love you) |
Most Popular Internet Expressions

It is time to mention the most often met shortened words in English online and SMS language.
- lol = laughing out loud;
- btw = by the way;
- rofl = rolling on the floor laughing;
- imho = in my humble opinion;
- imo = in my opinion;
- asap = as soon as possible;
- c u = see you;
- b4n = bye for now;
- b/f = boyfriend, same for – g/f;
- brb = be right back;
- abt = about;
- k = ok, okay.
You’ve met the most part of these symbols in everyday chatting with friends or on different websites and forums for sure. If there was a slang that you don’t know, there are websites that allow on checking its meaning. Urban Dictionary is one of the most interesting among them. Here you can find out lots of new things. There is a “word of the day” there, words are divided into categories, and popular expressions stand separately. This online dictionary is almost certainly the one that can explain the meaning of the most internet-abbreviations and slang-words you don’t know the meaning of.
Human communication with the help of new technologies is the one of the most intensively developing fields of modern life. It constantly influences not only on the way people communicate with each other, but on the written and even oral language itself as well.
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