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?  

Comments on Do U nEd txt hlp?

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  • 1 Posted by itort on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:25PM EDT Report Abuse

    Don't forget my favorite http://www.lingo2word.com/translate.php helps me finout what the kids mean , and what the doctors and lawyers mean. also has a search option and can help those spelling impaired :)

  • 2 Posted by dory_devlin on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    itort -- Thanks, I added lingo2word to the post. I was going to include it when I wrote this up, but had trouble accessing the site that day. No problem today! So thanks for the reminder.

  • 3 Posted by tobad4ya999 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    Hey dory devlin, i think you should go ----- yourself!

  • 4 Posted by lana8291 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:56PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am a teen and when I see people typing like that, it gets me sooooo mad. I don't get it.. if you like texting that much, then spell out the whole word.. getting to the "2" in 2night takes more time then just typing "t" "o"

  • 7 Posted by harveys4him5@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    Well i'm a teen and most of what you said were abbreviations aren't what we teens really use!!! what you thought were abbreviations i couldn't even understand!! us (teens) are able to understand what we type or write and most of adults are too unless they get too complicated, but otherwise the lingo we use is pretty much easy!!

  • 8 Posted by lewis_52mlb on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    lana8291, THANK YOU! Being 19 myself, I hate it when teens type such things as 'da'. It is like, can you not type out one more letter and have it be correctly put as 'The'? That goodness my friends do not type like that, or I would refer them back to High School.

  • 9 Posted by sum12play on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    The downfall of written language. People do not know how to spell anymore and so they appear stupid.

  • 10 Posted by sum12play on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    The downfall of written language. People do not know how to spell anymore and so they appear stupid.

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