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What does « tbh » mean?

« tbh » is short for « to be honest ».

tbh stands for « to be honest ». It prefaces an opinion the writer expects to land badly: « tbh I didn't like it ».

It is a hedge, not a claim about honesty. Used too often it has the opposite effect — if every third sentence is flagged as honest, the others are not.

How to write it in correct English

Written out, it is « to be honest », usually followed by a comma: To be honest, I didn't like it. The longer form to be honest with you is warmer. In formal writing the phrase is usually cut altogether: state the opinion and let it stand.

A corrected example

Here is what CorrectSMS does with a message containing « tbh ». The correction and the explanations are the app's own.

• tbh → To be honestExpand abbreviation 'tbh'.
• dont → don'tMissing apostrophe for contraction of 'do not'.
• its → it'sMissing apostrophe for contraction of 'it is'.
• its you choice → it's your choice'it's' is contraction of 'it is'; 'you' should be 'your' for possessive pronoun.
• i dont think its a good idea but its you choice → To be honest, I don't think it's a good idea, but it's your choice.Missing capitalization and punctuation throughout the sentence.

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