How to Text in 4 Languages

OMG, BRB TTY…does that make sense to you? If you text message or use instant messaging, you probably didn’t even have to think twice about it. Texting has its own language, kind of like a secret code. Make that languages, actually. The desire to say as much as possible in as few letters as possible is universal, and each language has its own version of abbreviations for use when sending IM’s and text messages. Here are some examples (via Wikipedia, Matador Travel and David Crystal’s Txting: the Gr8 Db8):

Spanish

• Jajaja / jejeje / jijiji: LOL or “laughing out loud”
• X: Short for “por,” means “for” in English
• Muak / muac / bs / besi2 / bx : Short for “besitos,” means “kisses”
• Grax / gr: Short for “gracias,” means “Thanks”
• Ktal: Short for “Que tál?,” means “what’s up?”
• A2: Short for “Adios,” means “goodbye”
• Hl: Short for “hola,” means “hello”

French

• 6né: Short for “Ciné,” means “movie theater”
• A+ / @+ : Short for “À plus,” means “See you later.”
• AHMA: Short for “À mon humble avis,” means “IMHO” or “In my humble opinion”
• Bjr: Short for “bonjour,” means “hello”
• Cb1: Short for “C’est bien,” means “That’s good.”
• D’ac: Short for “D’accord,” means “ok.”
• PTDR: Short for “Pété de rire,” means “ROFLMAO” or “rolling on the floor laughing”

German

• 8ung: Short for “Achtung,” means “attention”
• Gn8: Short for “gute nacht,” means “good night”
• Ild / Ily: Short for “ich liebe dich,” means “I love you.”
• Lamito: Short for “lache mich tot,” means “laughing myself to death.”
• Stn: Short for “Schönen tag nich,” means “have a good one.”
• Baba: Short for “bye-bye”

Mandarin Chinese

• 520: short for “wo ai ni,” means “I love you.”
• 748: short for “qi si ba,” means “Go to hell.”
• +u: Short for “jia you,” means “come on!”
• 88: Short for “baibai,” means “bye-bye”
• ddd: Short for “dingdingding,” means “I agree.”
• bs: Short for “baichi,” means “idiot”

Feel free to add your own favorite text messaging abbreviations in the comments