Text speak keeps the first letter of each word and drops the rest. Here are the most common shortcuts and their full form.
| Abbreviation | Full form |
|---|---|
| idk | I don't know |
| tbh | to be honest |
| brb | be right back |
| btw | by the way |
| imo | in my opinion |
| lol | laughing out loud |
| omg | oh my god |
| np | no problem |
| ty | thank you |
| ttyl | talk to you later |
| smh | shaking my head |
| fyi | for your information |
| jk | just kidding |
| rn | right now |
| tmrw | tomorrow |
These shortcuts work fine between friends. They become a problem as soon as the message changes register — a job application, an email to a teacher, a work message — because they carry along the mistakes they were hiding: missing apostrophes, lowercase “i”, homophones like “no” for “know”.
idk if i can come tmrw ill let u no
I don't know if I can come tomorrow. I'll let you know.