How do teens speak?

OMG is a big one with my daughter and her friends, but they're 12. Also, start sentences with 'it's like'.

'It's like, why wouldn't you text me back? I mean, you know? So, yeah. Yeah, so, I was pretty upset. It's like, you know, it takes, like, two seconds. Yeah, so.'

My daughter is right here and she says IDK and OMG are her main ones.

It's like, you know? Sooooo, yeah.

It depends on the teen. I have plenty of students that dont' say anything like the above (not that there's anything wrong with it!) Most teens have a fairly limited lexicon in general. They use slang-- 'sweet' 'my bad' and such. Go cruise MySpace (watch for viruses!) and read the comments sections. When you stop twitching at the hideosity of the managled English, you'll have some ideas of the slang they use. But most netspeak doesn't make it into everyday conversation. Maybe a few... but, like I said, none of my high school students use those in speech.

I'd hang out in a mall food court on the weekend and eavesdrop.

Since you're writing a blog, I don't recommend writing how teens speak (Like, oh my god, etc.). At best it's a cliche, and obnoxious in text form. You're better trying to capture their voice and style, like you said before, than speech patterns.

Like Clair said, surf some teen sites to get a general feel for voice, but clean it up for the most part. Forcing netspeak isn't going to work.

I agree with katiemac, but I think that "text speak" is the norm. That's the way the teens in the tiny Alabama town that I live in talk - to each other and to their parents. Every time I ask one of my girls (12 and 16) a question, the answer is "IDK, Mom".

Netspeak might tick off the teens you're trying to reach. What type of blog are you writing? Is it life from the POV of a teen or something like television?

What teens do you want to reach? A broad audience or a narrow tunnel of the most cliched-up ones?

And seriously, I haven't heard anyone talk in netspeak offline and we have teens around here all the time. It must be a white kid thing. (My BIL's are mixed) If my 15 year old told me 'IDK", I'd ask her when the frig she 'unlearned' her ABC's. ;-) Gawd, I'm getting old.

What sort of teen? Goth, jock, skater, nerd? Different types have different phrases they will use and references they will make. They also are into vastly different music, books (if they read) and movies. Who are they blogging to? The world at large, just their friends? They are going to write differently depending on that. Male or female? Again, different approaches in language.

You have to create the teen, then work out how they would speak.

So and cool.

How cool is that?
That is so not cool.
You are so going to regret that.

I'd be careful. The moment teens figure out an adult can mimic their voice/slang/vocabulary, they'll just change things up again.

It depends where abouts you live. I'm 16 and don't really talk that differently.

I've never really heard anyone speak in text speak, i've heard a few people say L.O.L, but when they do most teens look at them like 'what the hell?'


Teens use alot of ellipsis <-- (think that's how it's spelt.) Not ellipsis like the (...) dots But like fillers. If you know what that means.

We also don't usually talk about anything important, lol.

XX

Maybe come hang out in the YA forums? A lot of us are young.

I have it on good authority that it is no longer cool to say cool.

I say cool....I'm pretty damn cool.

Greenapple3 said:

Hi there!

I have to write a blog in a teen's 'voice'?

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Why is that? What's the point of this blog? From this I presume teens are your target audience, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should use "a teen's voice." And even if you do, you probably shouldn't WRITE the way they TALK in the malls (maybe dialogue, but even a teen writing or recreating dialogue on a blog is likely to leave out most or all the "well," "like," "you know" stuff).

If you're really trying to be convincing as a teen, one thing you might do is intentionally use some consistent writing mistakes. Like phrases and dependent clauses as sentences. If you're "too good" you might be noticed.

On the other hand (I'm resisting writing the net.abbrev OTOH), if the audience is a general all-ages one and you're supposed to "be a teen," then maybe you can make it humorous, go overboard and be a caricature of a modern teen.

Especially if it's a girl. Like, you kow...<giggles> ... xoxox

Greenapple3 said:

How do teen speak thes days???

Can you point to samples online maybe?

Thanks!

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There are teens right here on AW, you can read their blogs, but I don't think I'd consider them typical teen blogs, as just their being on AW indicates they're more interested than the average teen in writing well. But there's lots of other teens who have blogs online.

Entropy Perk said:

What sort of teen? Goth, jock, skater, nerd?

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What's a skater??? I'm so out of it, I feel fortunate I have a clue what goth is.

Skater- Person who rides a skateboard as a mode of transportation/recreation, or hangs out a lot with those who do.

ETA: That term has been in use, since at the very least, the '80's, to describe that sort of clique. Often associated with punk, as the two groups often intermix and overlap. Also see: Surfer's (who often overlap with hippies)

Head over to the YA boards here, as Shady suggested. You may want to ask for links to LJ's and Myspace blogs of teen girls, to get what they talk about and how they do it.

Though, pay attention to what sort of girl is writing it. Cheerleader types will not be doing/wanting the same sort of things (in general, we all want the same things) as a goth chick. Ordinary girls are not into the same scene as art chicks are. Find the type of girl you are going to be writing as, and avoid the ones who are not.

JNLister said:

I'd be careful. The moment teens figure out an adult can mimic their voice/slang/vocabulary, they'll just change things up again.

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Yes. They're better off sticking to complete gibberish. They may not be able to understand eachoter, but at least they will still be able to text.

Scroll down. See the forum jump?
You can find YA under Writing Studio.

Or scroll up. Click Writing Studio at the top of the posts. YA is under Writing Studio.

Nia said:

It depends where abouts you live. I'm 16 and don't really talk that differently.

I've never really heard anyone speak in text speak, i've heard a few people say L.O.L, but when they do most teens look at them like 'what the hell?'


Teens use alot of ellipsis <-- (think that's how it's spelt.) Not ellipsis like the (...) dots But like fillers. If you know what that means.

We also don't usually talk about anything important, lol.

XX

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It's like, um, this thing, you know, like with that guy from chem class, where he was like just standing there and um, had to get to class.
So we went down the hall, but um, he wasn't there. So like we just went back.

LOL

See, it's easy to talk like a teen. Difficult to understand what they are saying though.

(lol)