Do U nEd txt hlp?

Thu May 24, 2007 9:04PM EDT

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wnt 2 knO wot yor kds R sAN wen dey txt U o f?

That would be: Want to know what your kids are saying when they text you or friends?

A friend of mine remembers the first note her daughter left her in text speak before they started texting each other on cell phones. She didn't know what it said, so she had no idea she was at a friend's house nearby. Now, she's a pro, texting with the best of teen texters. But if you're a neophyte text-message receiver and sender, here's a quick reminder that there is some decoding help available on the web.

First, you can find a lengthy list of common text abbreviations at techdictionary.com. Better yet, if you're stumped about what a text message says or want to figure out how to translate grammatical English phrases into text-speak, there are some web-based translating tools:

Transl8it - Type in your text, emoticons, slang, and hit transl8it to convert it to regular English. Or vice versa. You can translate from lingo to English or English to lingo. Where do you want to meet tonight? converts to, whr do U wnt 2 MEt 2nt?

Lingo2word -- Has a nice feature that allows you to hover over the text-message translation words with your cursor to see what they mean.

Noslang.com translates slang into English only.

We won't get into what this all means for the language right now. In the short term, at least, it will help you communicate with your teen on the fly. Personally, I have a hard time shortening words, but that's because I've spent lots of years making sure my words are correctly spelled and my punctuation is in the right place. Have your kids gotten you into texting mode?  

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  • 26 Posted by annabarr02 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    nobody i know texts like that. thats exaggerating a ton.

  • 27 Posted by al.ahmad91 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    The key to understanding these things is to just sound it out no need for dictionaries

  • 28 Posted by cheshirecat9790 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:22PM EDT Report Abuse

    Ew.. I'm a teenager, and I hate it when people talk that way. I refuse to even respond to a jumble of letters and numbers. If they're too lazy and retarded to type out entire legible sentences to me, then they may as well keep their mouths shut.

  • 29 Posted by tempted0004 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm no kid, far from it. But if you just look at these abreviations and think about them, it's realy not that hard to figure out. Come on we had our own language when we were there age, give them theirs. If you cant trust you kids then maybe your realy just remembering how you used to mess with your parents..What goes around comes around..lol..Have fun kids.

  • 30 Posted by milly1319 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:20PM EDT Report Abuse

    so yeah i agree with juan_youngblood if parents are so scared of what their kids are saying in texts maybe you should've done a better job raising them. and if you want to know so bad what they're saying in their text then maybe you should just ask. its really not that complicated.

  • 31 Posted by xflowz on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    hey, i have an idea..... how about picking up an "effing" phone and actually speak on it and shove your "lolz" and "brb's" and "omg's" up your F.L.A.'s (use your imagination).

  • 32 Posted by xr600dog on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    Only a great mind can read this This is weird, but interesting! fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it Heh heh heh. Cool, huh? Easy for me to read. How 'bout you? Oh, and you can ignore the forwarding thing. My mother sent this to me in an email.

  • 33 Posted by nena_phantasy11 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:35PM EDT Report Abuse

    I abbreviate in texes b/c it shortens the text therefore fits into ONE text so I only have to pay for ONE tex not TWO! Which is more money!!!duh has adults ever thought of that?

  • 35 Posted by topdogmaxride on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    ok, this s not real chatspeak, just abbreviations.kid monitoring is going too far. i'm 14. i don't want my mom reading my texts, or IMs. not because I am saying something I shouldn't, because it's PRIVATE! If I wanted her to read it, I would not type in chatspeak. Also, kids don't chatspeak only 'cause their lasy, I'm not good at typing fast, and my friends I text are. I have to get a word in edgewise, before the topic changes, which it does quickly. 2, and 4 are at the top, easy to find. I do whatever I can to be faster. I usually type like this though, and chatspeak definatly helps.

  • 36 Posted by mike45391 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    i would just like all of the parents and "non-texters" to understand that most people, INCLUDING teenagers DO NOT do this.. why? because it really is much more confusing and the reason why numbers are normally NOT used, in contradiction to what is said in this article, is because it really is faster to type out, for example, to- instead of 2 in the word tonight. I am 17 years old so you can say im at the peak of the texting age and i do not use these, pardon my language, retarded little abreviations. I do use ones like ppl (people), btw (by the way), but usually its just easier to type it the way you know it as opposed to thinking about the better way to type it abbreviated. Most of the ppl (see, there i go again) i know just type most of it like normal ppl, unless when using words like people, etc. 1 idea/feature you as a parent or a non-texter might consider (or even a texter for that matter; i use it all the time) is the T9/word feature. It comes on every new phone nowadays. Basically, all you do is you press the button with the letter you want one time. and by the time you press the letters once the phone figures out what word you want to use. for example, if you would like to spell the word "would" you would normally have to press 9 666 88 555 3. But if you were using T9 or Word you would simply press : 9 6 8 5 3 and the phone would see the word "would" is the word that is most likely from the possible combinations of letters. So dont be fooled by the "do u want 2 mEt 2nt" language because it is not normally used. Think about it. whats faster: typing that would and having to switch to numbers and capitals or just using the word feature and typing "do u want to meet tonight". Its not like abbrviations are not used at all. Just not to the extent that they are made out to be. Btw, good luck.

  • 37 Posted by soccermstr257 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:31PM EDT Report Abuse

    wtf i am a "teen texter" and when me and my friends text we dont talk like that i dont know a single person who uses this crap except the people on tv its usually easier to just type out the real word anyways

  • 38 Posted by breannaj26 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    are you serious? nobody in their RIGHT MIND uses abbreviations like this, haha.

  • 39 Posted by paulsonfarms on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    preteens like me are all about texting though i only know a few things about it ! ttyl lol g2g ( thats some )

  • 40 Posted by emty0 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:54PM EDT Report Abuse

    I think if you want to write an article about teens you ought to talk to a few before just blathering on. I am a mom and and think teens could have done a much better job of translating their world then this silly article.

  • 41 Posted by maggot1196 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm so confused, this "mom" needs to loosen up...

  • 42 Posted by radman_rt on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:26PM EDT Report Abuse

    I guess the only question I have is, if you have to pay for the text message over and above the cost of a call, where do all the teens get the money to pay the phone bill? From Mommie and Daddie?

  • 43 Posted by akhal_tekeconnection on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:48PM EDT Report Abuse

    What a ridiculous article. I'm 16, and have friends with a wide variety of personalities and intellect, and none of them either text or chat using that dialect. I have seen a lesser degree of this chatspeak, but never to this extreme. And if my parents starting texting me like this, I would be horrified and tell them to leave their phones at home. It's very easy to get the message across by using real words. In fact, it's easier and less confusing. Before writing an article like this, perhaps you should do some research on how teens ACTUALLY text.

  • 44 Posted by imtehd00dlawl on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:23PM EDT Report Abuse

    thx 4 h3lpn me lrn2txt no i cn g0 2 teh plac nd txt lawl! also i dink dat vwls r stpd cz u don nd thm ll i cold ttly pwn u wit my txt cht wtfbbqpwnd lmaoburger AM I COOL YET???????I NEED TO FIT IN! People who use texting like that are retards, they are probably just doing it to be cool or they think they are saving time. I think its harder to get a 2 than it is to do T O

  • 45 Posted by nodnalp on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    What a bunch of marketing hype. The alleged generational rift between adults and teenagers is separated by word jumbles? This isn’t even a new phenomenon, message traffic in the military was written without vowels to reduce the time it took to transmit and read messages. And the alphabet soup of acronyms got their daily use as well in the military as well as in telegraphs. It figures that an internet company writes pap like this to mischaracterize the youth and the aged . You see it in all types of marketing campaigns, for example to sell cell phones.

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