Like it or not, we live in a world of Messenger, What’sApp, Twitter and texting … and that means if you want to read and understand conversations on the internet, abbreviations and acronyms can’t be avoided!
Having said that, no one is saying you have to use them when you write! You can write a perfectly good message WITHOUT using abbreviations. However, if you want to understand a message written by a native speaker, the chances are you are going to have to decipher an abbreviation or two!
So the next time your colleague from New York sends you a message, instead of thinking WTF?! (ha ha!) … you’ll be able to understand it!
LEVEL: Upper Intermediate and Advanced English Vocabulary Lesson
31 common internet abbreviations for texts and tweets
To make it easier to learn, we’ve grouped them into categories!
Abbreviations to Express Opinion
1. IMO / IMHO
2. POV
3. TBH
4. OMDB
5. SRSLY
6. GMTA
7. CWOT
8. SMH
-in my opinion / in my humble opinion
-Point of view
-To be honest
-Over my dead body
-Seriously
-Great minds think alike
-Complete waste of time
-Shaking my head (to describe a reaction to something stupid, hostile, unfair, unbelievable)
Abbreviations to Give Context
9. IRL
10. TIL
11. SOML
12. EMBM
13. J4F
14. JSYK
15. CS
16. DWH
-In real life
-Today I learned
-Story of my life
-Early morning business meeting
-Just for fun
-Just so you know
-Career suicide
-During work hours
Abbreviations for Notifications, Wishes & Greetings
17. OMW
18. GRATZ
19. GL
20. IDK
21. TTYL
22. IBRB
23. W8
24. B4N
25. B@u
26. BBIAS
27. CYT
28. DM
29. RUOK
30. GFN
31. CUL8R
-On my way
-Congratulations
-Good luck
-I don’t know
-Talk to you later
-I’ll be right back
-Wait
-Bye for now
-Back at you!
-Be back in a sec
See you tomorrow
Direct message
Are you ok?
Gone for now
See you later
Learn how to text like a native speaker
Have you done our FREE interactive lesson yet?!
So that’s it! 31 essential abbreviations to help you understand texts and tweets in English.
Now it’s over to you – try writing a conversation in the comments below to show how you would use them 👇
3 thoughts on “How to text in English: 31 abbreviations”
THX Kerin, great post!
GR8T! Glad you enjoyed it!
Kerin, Super interesting to know . CYT!