Not necessarily an acronym, but here’s a fun one for Japanese: Laughing in Japanese is warau, which gets shortened when typing to just w. If you want to laugh a lot, you would type wwww. That ends up looking like a field of grass, so that in turn gets shortened into 草 (kusa, or grass). Basically, 草 is the Japanese equivalent of lol
Also, in Chinese, thank you is often abbreviated as 3q, because when you say it out loud, it sounds like “thank you” (san kyu)
I learned pretty quickly to avoid Mario Maker levels with “wwww” in the title.
So would saying “touch grass” in Japanese be almost the same as saying “go to a comedy show?” :p
Hundreds of elden ring messages that just say “grass” or “time for grass” in random locations suddenly make sense now
In Thai, the number ‘5’ is pronounced like “haa”, so Thai people write 555 to signify laughter, similar to ‘lol’.
Also, in Chinese, thank you is often abbreviated as 3q, because when you say it out loud, it sounds like “thank you” (san kyu)
This is in Japanese too.
In Korean, “Hahaha” sounds more like “kh- kh- kh-”, represented by, “ㅋㅋㅋ”
Assuming you mean texting style acronyms, yeah, we have them in German and I’d assume in other languages too.
Alongside the stuff borrowed from English 1:1, there’s stuff like bb for “Bis bald” (See you soon) or hdl for “hab dich lieb” (Love you)
I’d assume other languages do the same out of efficiency or laziness.
Yes. Here are some common ones in my native language, danish:
- pga: på grund af (because of)
- dvs: det vil sige (used for adding additional explaination)
- ift: i forhold til (in relation to)
I’m certain there are also some more modern slang abbreviations in use, but these change relatively frequently, like they do in English.
Those are official abbreviations that can be found in a dictionary.
The ones OP posted aren’t all official. TBH and SMH are official. IMO is internet slang.
There’s not a lot of consensus on internet slang abbreviations in Danish. It was more common back in the texting days, when all girls would end their messages with an S for “smiling”, SS for “smiling sweetly”, or KKK for “hugs hugs and kisses”.
Someone once made an index: https://www.telemarkedet.dk/sms-ordbog-sms-sprogets-forkortelser
I remember this GG ^^
And then you gotta type your smiley faces with a nose :-D
Good game or grin grin.
I always read it as *griner griner*, even though i know it was supposed to be griner godt lol.
I feel like the difference between good game and laughing would be the asterixes.
I speak Dutch, reading Danish is a trip. Dat wil zeggen -> det vil sige. And yes we use dwz.
We use plenty of abbreviations like that too. Like aub for alstublieft. Meaning please, or more literally if you would be so inclined.
Back in the 90s when I lived in Amsterdam, I also saw svp (which is actually French) used often instead of aub. I never understood why though.
Also, ff wachten for example. ff is short for effe, or rather “even”. Just wanted to throw that one into the mix.
Edit: alstublieft is also a short version of “als het uw blieft”
Yeah it’s odd. Nobody says S’il vous plaît but we do say svp out loud.
Is there also an abbreviation similar to Swedish m.v.h. (med vänliga hälsningar) or German MfG (Mit freundlichen Grüßen)?
Mvh. exist and is used commonly in Danish. It’s considered old-fashioned. The modern version is just Vh.
Question from a curious mountainmonkey: We have the same phrases and abbreviations up here, and is Danish equally as subject to people abusing “I forhold til” when they actually mean “I forbindelse med” or “med tanke på” ?
Yes, they’re abused and mixed up. Best writing practice is to avoid them, because these phrases can often be left out in the first place or at least written more clearly.
French :
ftg : ferme ta gueule (shut it) ntm : nique ta mere (fuck your mom) slt : Salut (hello) cv : ça va ? (How are you?) ptn : putain (fuck) srx : sérieux (really?) jpp : j’en peux plus (I’m fed up)
I love that you started with the insults mdr
A regular French thing I guess
“Mdr” is a good one as well, good catch :) MDR = mort de rire = laughing to death
Don’t forget rsvp!
RSVP is more prevalent in the US (and the english speaking countries) than in France ;)
Well TIL. Thanks!
There’s also Cc (pronounced “cou cou”) used for greeting.
In Portuguese we don’t use many acronyms, but we have shorter versions of words with the vowels removed or things like that. When people tried to use acronyms we ended up with “fds” which some people read as weekend, others read as “fuck it”. The only other acronyms I can think of right now are all for offenses such as fdp (son of a bitch) and cdf (“ass of iron”, very old term for calling someone a nerd).
ex-USSR early rusophonic internet had a lot of original and transliterated ones but I rarely see them nowadays, and most are community-specific. Some didn’t carry over, some replaced by chat stickers, and the writing\reading of longer posts itself seems like a niche now when there are audio and video messages at hand. Add there that the web space I talk about is now also fragmented and occupied by bots\dummies due to the war and many sites for international communication on russian lost a big part of frequent posters\mods and later effectively musk’ed themselves.
Those I’ve heard the last:
imo > кмк > как мне кажется > what I suspect is bf > мч > молодой человек > young partner wtf > чзх > что за хуйня > what's a dickshit idk > хз > хуй (его) знает > dick knows (that)A lot of newer words I googled after hearing it from kids came from TikTok and they are mostly translations of trends carried in by local influencers.
I’ve been saying it for years, what is a dickshit?
In Russian? There are like five basic words you make your obscene lexics from (like ‘fuck’ in English), and хуй (khooy) is one of them, meaning dick, and хуйня (khooy-nya) is a thing related to a dick in a bad way, like a borked project or a complicated situation, while not having a direct translation on it’s own. Something like, ehm, a dick-thing? as it’s a noun, just like хуета (khu-e-tah), meaning the same. There are also an adverb хуёво (khoo-yovo) meaning something isn’t going great, and забил хуй (zah-beel khooy) when you discarded your dick in that situation and don’t give a fuck about what’s going on.
Many of them you can hear on the recordings from the ongoing war.
I’m not sure I’ve understood you correctly, so you can specify what you want to know.
My post was mainly a joke, however, I find your comments extremely interesting and well worded.
That last example “забил хуй (zah-beel khooy)”. I find very amusing and I can grasp the feeling. Google translates it literally to being “Hammered the dick”.
Is that accurate?
I think slang and vulgar terms are fascinating and tell a lot about the culture that produced them. I even go so far as to say, swearing is one of the most illuminating things there is to language.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Speaking of the ongoing war, did you catch this video?
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/y5l3vi/ukrainians_intercepted_communication_between/
(Sorry for the Reddit link, it’s the only place I’ve seen it.)
How would you rate the translation of the subtitles?
1
Ah, I’ve seen this vid. It feels so old now.
First indiscernible phrase is
Сейчас, нахуй, сейчас. Сейчас я тебе дам
Now, dammit, now. (addressing the one who he’d then call out) I’m gonna give you (a punch).
Залупа or Dickhead is correct. Usually this noun describes not a person, but a bad place to live in (a similar-sounding word халупа is a name for a simple and small hut, probably it came into obscene slang due to it’s shape) or some pointless endeavor.
Уёбище ты ёбаное isn’t exactly fucking scumbag. Enraged person just strings similar words together. But if translated, ёбаное уёбище is a fucking fuckface, for the second word usually means someone (physically) unpleasant. I find that this version underlines the ranting nature of this banter.
Счетовод or calculator-man is an old word for an accountant, from the imperial times when only a minority knew basic math. Now it’s only used as a sarcasm like there. Probably not precise, but meme-y.
In Косой пидор, блять the first word was omitted from subs. It means strabismus or an unusual alignment of one’s sight, making eye-lines get crossed or point in different directions. It’s a very old ableism that’s still used for those who fail shots or throws in sports, games, military. It also has a direvative verb скосить when someone missed. See also: https://www.reddit.com/r/russian/comments/dkg6ne/the_most_confusing_sentence/ They could’ve used other words for visually impaired, but probably found it’s not worth it.
Lifter or поднимальщик there is an invented word, basically a person who lifts (something), probably a barrel of a gun too much, thus the accuracy is abysmal. Don’t think it can be translated better.
The beads part is correct, hah.
This translation is alright.
2
Yeah. Забить is putting a nail in with a hammer (or scoring a goal in soccer), forcing something in.
Now after thinking I suspect the original version was SFW, not the other way around, and meant ‘to hammer in a bolt\screw’, to bork something intentionally. And later it changed for a dick.
Not at all. I find obscene words and talking about them amusing myself.
Do you have some interesting examples from your own language\s?
I just speak American English, so nothing too crazy. There’s the term fuckin’ a. It’s used by older generations I’d say. I’ve always just assumed the a stood for ass, which would be strange to censor ass after you said fuck. I recently looked into it and the a is for affirmative, and the term comes from military radio chatter. It basically means emphatically affirmative.
Another old time one is the whole shiterie, Meaning the whole thing or collection.
Another fun one is a brick shit house, meaning overly well built for what it’s used for.
There’s also shit on a shingle aka sos, which was a really basic diner food consisting of gravy on toast.
And I assumed A was for the highest mark in school (when evaluating something). In some cases I remember it did make sence, but thanks for telling me about it’s origins.
Offtop, but now I’m thinking if all these college clubs in the movies were called in latin words because of the military too, with their Alpha-Bravo-Delta correction of hearing\spelling errors over the radio.
Your examples are fun too, and SOS sounds like an emergency dose of callories with minimal decorations when one’s too exhausted (:
P.S.: It’s not unusual to know only one single language. Weirdly enough, that’s shared between the US and Russia due to their huge territory most people never leave and a lot of folks being offended by hearing other languages spoken around them, like MAGA or vatniks. I’ve got lucky my parents invested some skillpoints into languages years ago, so I can talk to you, and you’ve been dealt a slightly worse hand in that department. No shame here. A lot of my dearest and wisest friends can’t read memes I send them even in kindergarden English so, at least, you dodge this regular frustration (:
I think the college fraternity has more to do with the names for Greek letters, trying to sound mysterious I think.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternities_and_sororities
All people on this earth have a lot more in common than they think especially Russians and Americans. I think your Vatnik MAGA comparison is spot on. Being a stupid asshole is now a political ideology.
A few great examples can be seen in this video: https://youtu.be/wtr5XXHufuk?si=KQXW12BidmQZGioN
It’s a long one but very interesting. There are several times he shows peoples cars and boats covered with Zs. Very reminiscent of trump supporters I see around here with all kinds of bullshit on their cars.
This guy’s channel is great. He explores areas of Russia that no one talks about. This video I found especially interesting as Kaliningrad (originally Koningsberg) is where my maternal grandmother was from. It’s fascinating to see what the land is like. I doubt I’d ever be able to see it in person regardless of the war.
My great grandfather on my dad’s side was from Ukraine. I’ve always been very interested in Eastern Europe.
Good on your parents. I wish I spoke at least some Spanish as that’s the main 2nd language around where I live. There are also quite a few Russian and Ukrainian immigrants in the area. So much so that all the signs at the food bank have those languages in addition to Spanish. It always warms my heart to see the Babushkas loading up on beets and turnips alongside the older Hispanic ladies!
I wish you health and safety in this increasingly turbulent and uncertain world.
Shit can basically mean anything good, bad, ugly, or beautiful. It’s really an amazing word.
I’d say хз (the last one) is still used very commonly, but the rest are a bit outdated and I barely see them anymore.
Another thing I thought was outdated but some of my friends use is shortening common words. “I like” would be “мне нравится” and some people save themselves a second and write it like “мне нрав”.
And another thing I just thought of is “etc” equivalent in Russian, “и т.д.”, this one is used officially in documents etc, it’s a shortening of “и так далее”, literally “and so on”. And some people simplify it further by writing “итд” without spaces and dots.
A French one is common enough that it’s used in English- “Répondez, s’il vous plaît” (Respond, if you please) is where we get RSVP. “SVP” is also sometimes used as a shorthand for “please”, at least in Quebecois.
There’s loads, I’m kind of blanking but MDR (mort de rire) comes to mind as the lol equivalent. I think you guys in Quebec don’t use it though correct me if I’m wrong. I married one of yours but I’m still missing a lot of the day to day things.
It’s sometimes used here, I think it depends how English you are. I just use “lol” but my fiancée does use “mdr” with other French speakers.
I hate english speakers that use rsvp as a verb and then say stuff like “rsvp please”.
Respond if you please please
RIP in peace.
One of my favorites is in Japanese. Laughing is “w” or “www” or something. The word is “warau”. So then the ws, they look like grass, so people use the grass emoji, so then people write “kusa”.
The number 5 is pronounced “ha” in Thai. So Thai people laugh 555 or 55555 if it was very funny.
And in Brazil its kkkkkkkkkkk 🤣
I don’t speak French natively but I happen to know their version of lol is “mdr”, short for mort de rire (dying of laughter)
Nepali has quite a few.
का. म. पा. (Ka ma pa) - Kathmandu Mahanagar Palika - Greater Kathmandu Metro.
मा. प. से. (Ma Pa Se) - Madak Padartha Sewan - directly translates to taking of illicit substance but is used to describe DUI
ने. बि. (Ne Bi) - Nepal Bidhyarthi - Nepal student (Association)
भु. पु. (Bhu Pu) - Bhoot Purva - Past/previous.
There are more that I’m blanking out on right now.
Updoot for nepali
One that I’m aware of is “tskr” in Japanese. It’s a slang term that derives from たすかる (tasukaru). The meaning depends on the context and it can mean something like either “you saved me” or “thanks for helping me”.
In Thai they’ll text 555 for hahaha as 5 sounds like ha in Thai
In Sesotho, “how are you?” is “ho joang?” which gets shortened to “hj”
IMO in German = mMn (meiner Meinung nach)
But for the most part we use the English ones
zB = zum Beispiel = for example
usw = und so weiter = and so forth
etc = etcetera = and so forth
we love shortings too
of course; all of these are very much pre-Internet ones and don’t correspond to any Internet slang in English
Et cetera is latin and “etc” is commonly used in English and quite a few other languages as well.
hdgdl
Isn’t that what you do with Bitcoin?
smh = iwie (irgendwie)
How r u = wg (wie geht’s)
somebody = jmd (jemand)
Shut up = hdf (Halt die Fresse)
probs = wsl (wahrscheinlich)
idk = kp (kein Plan)
kp could also be “kein Problem” (no problem) which is why I personally prefer idk / np over kp / kp
I’m using none of these. But what i use almost all the time : possibly = evtl (eventuell) maybe = vllt (vielleicht) kindest regards = LG (Liebe Grüße) e.g. /for example = zB (z.B.: / zum Beispiel) (i omit the dots and colons)
True, I use those too ^^
smh means shaking my head though
Lol, I always used it for “somehow” :')
In Spanish there’s some things like “xq” instead of “por qué/porque” but it was only used in SMS messaging to use less characters. If someone talks to me like that I won’t reply, it just doesn’t have the same vibes as in English.
…which makes me kind of a hypocrite for using “obv” for obviously (obviamente).
A few more in case anyone is interested:
- Tkm Te quiero mucho, I love you
- Ntp No te preocupes, don’t worry
- Tlj Te lo juro, I swear (to you)
- Cdt Cuídate, take care (of yourself)
- Tki Tengo que irme, I gotta go
Spanish bases its texting slang around phonetics, instead of the English way of the first letter of the word
Alv (a la verga).
Npi (ni puta idea)/ no fucking clue
Alabad La Virgen
plp - pa’ la pinga, to the dick, fuck it (as in whatever)
Curious, I’ve never seen ntp, but I’ve heard and used “ntr” (no te rayes), which means the same.
“xq xq xq xq n m kiere” is 90’s msn vibe.
For anyone else who is curious but doesn’t already know “por qué” = “because”.
Por qué means why. Porque means because ;)
Thats what i get for using google translate.
Thanks for correcting!
Por que?
Porque.
Por que?!
Porque.
¡Te pregunto quién sale primero!
(I don’t know spanish)
And that’s why we say “porque sí” and not just “porque”. It’d be so confusing! :P
It’s confusing enough, we actually have 4 different forms:
-
Porque (because)
-
Por qué? (why?)
-
(el) porqué: the reason why
-
Por (el/la/lo) que: I don’t think this is used anymore without the article, but some linguist correct me please.
Most people don’t know how to use the latter two, even I am still confused about the last one.
-
é é é é é feel free to take as many as you need
