Short Forms

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Language is a medium of communication  and expression. The language translates your thoughts into words. Thousands of languages are spoken around the world. English being a common global language.Each language has its own style, rules, spelling, syntax and grammar. It appalls me to see how the English language is butchered during the chats on social media. People shrink the spellings, use acronyms and mangle the beauty of the written word.

great – gr8

love- luv

that- dat

come –cum

why – y

see you- cu

for-4

the- da

I see- ic

ate – 8

bye for now – bfn

I don’t know-idk

let me know-lmk

 

These are some of the short forms we come across daily while texting or updating posts on various social media platforms.

I am not a great fan of such short forms. It hardly takes a few extra seconds to type out the right spelling of the word. Some consider me as “uncool”……….but I don’t mind. I would rather maintain the beauty of the language than to strangle it by chopping the letters.

What do you think?

 

 

 

99 thoughts on “Short Forms”

  1. I on the other hand find it okay to use this slangs while messaging, but not away from that. They had been the savior during the times i had the keypad phone, and i still use slangs for multiwords like btw, idk..

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      1. I completely feel you there. We actually had fellow students in 12th standard, who used them during the english essays and answers.
        Being old school sometimes is the best thing of all.

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  2. My sentiments exactly. Distortion of language in unacceptable and I am glad you mentioned this. It’s like shortening the sentiments of language with 2B or not 2B. Although such occurrences are common I am not impressed.

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  11. You rite Radhika, short forms are not good for writing English. When we chat in social media short forms of English is generally used and sometime i am not understand of new short forms including the-da, why-y, for-4etc.

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  12. Totally agree Radhika. First, it was on the button phone, maybe still acceptable. But now with smart phones it’s so easy. If you see, the is 3 letters, while da is 2 letters long. How long does it take to type one more alphabet?? It’s seriously,a murder of the language 😯

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  13. With you on this. Although I have to admit that I end up using one or the other short forms during chats in haste or sometimes just out of impatience.

    Mails, blogs, even comments etc. must be written carefully though.

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      1. There are so many blogs I unfollow just because I cannot stand their use of language, even if they are good.

        Written words deserve certain respect. They should be granted that.

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  15. Joining the club. Many a times when I ask the youngsters not to use abbreviations, I get the reply ‘Mah lyf mah rules’. Hope they don’t write similarly in their exams or official correspondence once they take up profession.

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      1. Thanks, I am Dhiraj.
        Wasn’t shocked, few days back when I received a mail from an executive of a finance company and he had used such short forms at numerous places in the mail, so I suppose we the ‘Old School’ should be mentally prepared of the crippled language in coming times.

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  16. yo, dats an amzng blg u hv shrd ;-)….hehe… couldn’t resist that one…
    .
    I guess the credit should go to the initial days of telecom rollout… before the WA era…where SMS’s were not cheap….had and still have a 140 character limit… And this induced habit stuck….and will in all probability be passed onto the generations to come…

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  19. hehe i am so habitual of using these short forms :P.. and i think twitter made me to do so in starting, then it became a habit.. on twitter, you want to say as much as you can say in the limited 140 character space. so that way its very helpful 🙂 .. and also its fun and style sometimes 😀 😀

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      1. In starting, I was so much into this that I used to write like this even for my studies 😝, then i start to control it ..Even some of my friends criticize me alot 😛… Now i think I have almost overcome this habbit as before I was using mah for my and meh for me and uh for you hehe…Still I sometimes use that but only in chatting… Not anywhere else 😊

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      3. Meh want to say uh thanks for appreciating mah this achievement 😂😂
        just kidding..🙊

        Btw I am not getting notifications of your replies..May be my wordpress is going through rough time 😬😬

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  20. I do really agree with you Radhi.At times it seems a nuisance in figuring out what the messege is exactly.For me it takes a long time to understand though its called short message service.

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  21. I think people in this country (USA) do not know how to spell anymore. Kids do not read as much and they have these kinds of shortcuts now too. So now they do not have a good grasp on the English language and I feel this is sad. I agree that social media is one big culprit too, which is also diminishing the use of the spoken word. No-one seems to be able to have a real conversation anymore either. Major important discussions are done in texts: break-ups etc. This is unkind and mean. We’ve lost the ability to connect…and words were an important way to do this… in books, letters etc. So when we even hack away at the real word, then what do we really have left that makes us human? Just my two cents.

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    1. You’ve just echoed my voice dear friend. Its really sad and alarming to see the younger generation getting sucked into the virtual world. I feel we were lucky to have an actual connect with people.
      Regarding the short forms, Indians, specially the youngsters are making it a part of their writing, and what is disturbing is, it is seeping into areas beyond the confines of social media too.

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  29. I have caught myself using these slangs in WhatsApp messages but it once so happened that I ended up typing an important mail with ‘grt’ and ‘gud’ instead of the actual word. I am fortunate that if it came to the notice of the receipt, it was not brought up so I quickly checked myself and now think it is so much better to use the full word instead. The ‘cool’ factor is definitely a big reason but I suppose for some it is quick and easier to use on a mobile keyboard and for others it is to save the size of the text in messages.

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  30. Well said… Language is losing it’s originality..it’s pitiable….when I watch old english movie and then the new one , I do not find difference in the words used and grammar taken care of…but it is not the same with Hindi. Hindi is in a dilapidated state. With the low level of vocabulary this generation has of Hindi , the rich old literature we have will only decorate the Govt Libraries.

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