[EssYouWe]

Funny thread...

Hope you guys see the funny side to this. (Not trying to be preachy here!)

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling - The Oatmeal

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thanks... Brilliant! Have bookmarked the site to check out their other stuff later.

[vasoo]

Usage of "common" instead of "come on". I think about 90% of people get it wrong, even in this forum.

[amitoj]

Is it ok to shorten "welcome" to "wc" when responding to someone who has shortened his thanks to "tx" ? I feel WC is meant to denote something entirely different (water closet a.k.a. the loo) and welcome is one word, not two like "well come".
My preference is to say "uw" as in, "you're welcome"

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Is it ok to shorten "welcome" to "wc" when responding to someone who has shortened his thanks to "tx" ? I feel WC is meant to denote something entirely different (water closet a.k.a. the loo) and welcome is one word, not two like "well come".
My preference is to say "uw" as in, "you're welcome"

That's funny.

I've always seen it shortened to YW.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I think these SMS/chat abbreviations are against the rules of Team-BHP, and that full English is required. I've noticed that they are even banned on some forums that have a far more "youth" focus (for want of a better word) than here, which surprises me.

So, what abbreviations are acceptable in standard English?

The only ones that occur to me just now are those words like can't, it's, shouldn't etc. And "etc" (et cetera)!

[Edsel Rulez!]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Is it ok to shorten "welcome" to "wc" when responding to someone who has shortened his thanks to "tx" ? I feel WC is meant to denote something entirely different (water closet a.k.a. the loo) and welcome is one word, not two like "well come". My preference is to say "uw" as in, "you're welcome"

I suppose it would depend on how well you know the other person and how frequently you've communicated in shorthand! I wouldn't have understood what "wc" or "uw" means, even in context, so I would prefer to spell out the words to avoid any ambiguity. But then I do that even when sending text messages on my mobile phone.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

I've always seen it shortened to YW.

YMMV

I don't know if it is inconsistency on my part, but, whereas I hate the sms language, finding it lazy, ugly and incomprehensible (even in an SMS message!), I don;t feel the same about the much older internet/techie stuff like OM[F]G, LOL, IIRC. Possibly because it abbreviates the language without mangling it.

<cross-posted>

Edsel Rulez!, yes, I agree, and I didn't know uw either. What's more, wc, to me, means toilet!

I also use full English for SMS messages, utilising T9 predictive typing. I guess, though, that if I was conversing for hours in SMS (as the wont of many young, and some not so young, people), I might be tempted to abrevi8 !

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

That's funny.

Tell me about it. First time i got this, i was wondering why the other person is telling me that he is going to the loo?

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I think these SMS/chat abbreviations are against the rules of Team-BHP, and that full English is required.

So, what abbreviations are acceptable in standard English?

The only ones that occur to me just now are those words like can't, it's, shouldn't etc. And "etc" (et cetera)!

You are right on the rules part, and in that respect, my post was a bit OT.
Ooops... i did it again

Originally Posted by Edsel Rulez!

I suppose it would depend on how well you know the other person and how frequently you've communicated in shorthand!

True. Once i was totally at sea when my counterpart from US replied "1" to my question "do you have 5 minutes?" Turns out he meant "yes"
1 in the c/c+ programming world means true, or yes.

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

........I hate the sms language, finding it lazy, ugly and incomprehensible (even in an SMS message!), I don;t feel the same about the much older internet/techie stuff like OM[F]G, LOL, IIRC. Possibly because it abbreviates the language without mangling it.

....

My sentiments exactly. IIRC, LOL, ROFTL, BRB and WB (as well as YW) do abbreviate the language without mangling it and I have no problems with them while I do find the mangling of the language in SMS-lingo lazy, ugly etc.

Going back a bit, the correct response to a "Thank you" is "You are welcome" or "You're welcome" therefore the correct abbreviation would be YW and not WC with its connotation of sanitary fittings. WC is incorrect for another reason - welcome is one word and not two, as amitoj has pointed out.


Cheers,

[bottle]

Any thoughts on the usage of the suffix -wise ? Googled around and there are a lot of opinions about it and most of them are that it isn't proper english. Eg. customerwise

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by amitoj

True. Once i was totally at sea when my counterpart from US replied "1" to my question "do you have 5 minutes?" Turns out he meant "yes"
1 in the c/c+ programming world means true, or yes.

I don't know your, or his, profession, but my experience is that techies, although they have their own quirks of language, do not misuse technical terms. It is the management types, and the consultants, that you hear talking about binary situations, black boxes, and jargon that they think sounds clever but doesn't. Management speak: I hate it!

There's a very interesting analysis of techie, hacker and gaming lingo on the net called, "The Jargon Files". Whilst people might not want to wade through the definitions, the comments about how it came about, and the different attitudes, are interesting.

[SamtheLeo]

Wonderful Thread & is really very informative as well. Nice Initiative & compilation SAM

[straightdrive]

Originally Posted by vasoo

Usage of "common" instead of "come on". I think about 90% of people get it wrong, even in this forum.

Common, Vasoo, it's not as high as 90%.

[bblost]

Found a nice joke on askmen.com.

It makes more sense here than in the joke thread, hence posting it here.

An English teacher at the local university spent a lot of time marking grammatical errors in her students' written work. She wasn't sure how much of an impact she was having until one overly busy day when she was sitting at her desk, rubbing her temples.
A student asked: "What's the matter, Ms. Dalton?"
"Tense," she replied, describing her emotional state.
After a slight pause the student tried again: "What was the matter? What has been the matter? What might have been the matter...?"