Need Help translating into "modern teen texting lingo"

Mark G · Feb 17, 2012

Setup: The recipient of the texts is a girl who stood up to the school's most notorious "mean girl" (Chelsea), after said "mean girl" told "the new girl" (Erin) she should commit suicide. There was a possibly conjured frog involved...

(Chapter 1 on my blog)

I'm not sure how to abbreviate/shorten these any more, but was told in a Read & Critique that they're WAY too long to be believable as texts from modern teens. I'm guessing I'd have to resort to "secret code", but I worry about losing readability if I deviate too far from English.

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Tanya: OMG! U totally punk'd Chels. U'r like a hero now! Everyone wants to throw a party 4U! =)[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New, monospace][/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Erin: Thanks again! Talked 2 my dad. He was gonna pull me out, but I told him I'd be OK. Heard there might be a party? [/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New, monospace][/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Heather: I think Ur a witch like me. Come 2 my house 2nite & my aunt can tell 4 sure. Stay calm. Don't manifest anything else![/FONT]

I appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!

Mark Moore · Feb 17, 2012

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Maybe something like this:[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New, monospace][/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Tanya: OMG! U totally punkd Chels. Ur like a hero now! Everyone wants to throw a party 4U! =)[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Erin: Thanx again! Talked 2 dad. He was gonna pull me out, but I told him I'd be OK. Heard there might be a party? [/FONT]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Heather: I think Ur a witch like me. Come 2 my house 2nite & my aunt can tell 4 sure. Stay calm. Don't manifest anything else![/FONT]

buz · Feb 17, 2012

Course, the problem is that the most shortened texts are not...uh...readable. Also, it depends on your teenagers. I never had any friends or anything that wrote in full abrevs, because they're effing obnoxious and hard to read. So I dunno about your crits...I would associate more extreme "text lingo" with more extreme ditzyness.

But I'll give it a shot.

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Tanya: OMG! U totally punk'd Chels. U'r like a hero now! Everyone wants to throw a party 4U! =)[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Erin: Thanks again! Talked 2 my dad. He was gonna pull me out, but I told him I'd be OK. Heard there might be a party? [/FONT]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Heather: I think Ur a witch like me. Come 2 my house 2nite & my aunt can tell 4 sure. Stay calm. Don't manifest anything else![/FONT]

Tanya: OMG u totes punkd Chels. Ur like a hero! Evry1 wants 2 throw a party 4U (I have a problem with the last line, though, it doesn't sound "real" and it seems unnecessary, I think you can ditch it if Erin's text follows hers...cause...she mentions the party...if not, you could just say "Gonna b a party 2nite" --I've never known people to throw parties for other people when not celebrating a specific occasion...)

Erin: Thx! Talked 2 dad. He was gonna pull me out, but i told him id be ok. Heard there might b a party?

Heather: ...this text is just weird anyway. Seems fine to me, really.

So...that was probably unhelpful. But you don't have to "conform" to people's ideals of crappy texting...people text differently just like they write differently. Most people who abbreviate things or use numbers instead of the letters probably can't spell "manifest". I dunno.

Mark G · Feb 17, 2012

buzhidao said:
Most people who abbreviate things or use numbers instead of the letters probably can't spell "manifest". I dunno.

I got the crit about that too; Heather is a witch raised by witches, so I figured they'd teach her that...

buz · Feb 17, 2012

Teenagers are humans raised by other humans...who frequently can't spell words that they use regularly in their lives.

My point is...your teenagers can text however the hell you want them to. No need to make them stereotypes, I don't think...unless they *are* stereotypes. In which case, use the abbrevs

MttStrn · Feb 17, 2012

One thing to note is that many teens (and adults) seem to text multiple times as opposed to one long line. The first text from Tanya as you wrote it does seem long.

Tanya: OMG! U totally punk'd Chels. U'r like a hero now! Everyone wants to throw a party 4U! =)

But I think someone, unless they didn't have unlimited texts would text like so:

Tanya: OMG!
Tanya: U totally punk'd Chels.
Tanya: U'r like a hero now!
Tanya: Everyone wants to throw a party 4U! =)

I get blasts like these all the time.

Just my $.02

rachelmachelsmachel · Feb 17, 2012

my turn!!(..?)

Tanya: omg u totally punked Chels. ur like a hero now! everyone wants to throw a party for u! =)

Erin: Thanks again! Talked to my dad. He was gonna pull me out but I told him Id be ok. Heard there might be a party?

Heather: I think ur a witch like me. Come to my house tonite and my aunt can tell 4 sure. Stay calm. Dont manifest anything else!

-----

Basically I just dumbed down the grammar a little and uncapitalized the "U"s. I've met a lot of older people on the internet and the easiest way to tell is when they use a capital u.
Keep in mind not all teenage girls text the same way, like some are really bad with abbreviations and others use them a lot less. Another trick you could do would be to use "your" instead of "you're" as well as "then" instead of "than" and "there" instead of "they're/their".

Hope I helped

Source: My own bad texting habits...

rachelmachelsmachel · Feb 17, 2012

ooh and the guy above me is definitely right

blacbird · Feb 17, 2012

Go consult a "modern teen" who spends six or eight hours a day texting all his/her social contacts. Offer to purchase cell phone minutes. That oughtta work.

caw

Smiling Ted · Feb 18, 2012

Try this site:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/

and do a search for "txt"

Also - you might want to cut down the number of words in your message.

randi.lee · Feb 18, 2012

I know this has been answered several times already... but it just seems like a fun game so I'm adding mine, too!

Tanya: omg u ttly punked chels ur like a hero now! evryone wants to throw a PT 4 u! =)

Erin: Thx! Talked to my dad. He was gonna pull me out but i said id be ok. is there a PT?

Heather: think ur a witch, to. Come to my house tonite my aunt can tell 4 sure. chillax 4 now!

tedi.s · Feb 18, 2012

Mark G said:
[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Tanya: OMG! U totally punk'd Chels. U'r like a hero now! Everyone wants to throw a party 4U! =)[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Erin: Thanks again! Talked 2 my dad. He was gonna pull me out, but I told him I'd be OK. Heard there might be a party? [/FONT]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Heather: I think Ur a witch like me. Come 2 my house 2nite & my aunt can tell 4 sure. Stay calm. Don't manifest anything else![/FONT]

Having confiscated MANY text phones as a teacher and received pranks here I go. No remember most teens are BEGGING for an iPhone which has bubbles and they text frequent short texts in succession. Also what is this nonsense you call "punctuation"?

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Tanya: OMG! U ttlly punkd Chels.
Ur like a hero now!
Evry1 wants 2 throw a party 4U! =)[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Erin: Thx again!
Talked 2 my dad. He wuz gonna pull me out!! I told him Id be OK.
Party???[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]Heather: I think ur a witch like me.
Come 2 my houz 2nite n my aunt can tell 4 sure. Stay calm! Dnt manifest nething elz![/FONT]
(this is n e thing, get it

)

Also they like to use lots of ???? or !!!! and they also use numbers instead of certain digraphs.
and if I hope you can understand this as I didn't Text it out as much as I could have.

TTYL. Tedi!

jaksen · Feb 18, 2012

Give it to a teenager who texts a lot. Ask her to edit it for you.

But I've been told, by a teenager, that lately a lot of them do not use the 2 for two or 4 for four, etc. They write more things out and use fewer abbreviations. I said why? She shrugged.

By the time a book is published with texting in it, maybe the kids will be writing in formalized English with correct punctuation. Just to be rebellious, ya know?

Devil Ledbetter · Feb 18, 2012

jaksen said:
But I've been told, by a teenager, that lately a lot of them do not use the 2 for two or 4 for four, etc. They write more things out and use fewer abbreviations. I said why? She shrugged.

I think I know why the popularity of numbers in place of words/letters has dropped away of late. More teens now have smartphones with qwerty keyboards and autofill/autocorrect. There is no longer any time saved by typing a number.

I just had my high school freshman read the text conversation in the OP. Her response was "Ew. I don't know anyone who texts like that."

I asked her if she was willing to share a real life teen text conversation here, and she was. The conversation is between her and a boy who is a junior. Here it is, spelling, capitalization and punctuation verbatim:

omg have you seen chronicle?

Yes I have. Did you like it?

Omg i thought it was great! Did you like it? I was kinda bummed when (spoiler removed).

Yeah I felt like crying for some reason. I'M trying to learn how to legit use telekinesi cause I guess you can.

Whhhaaatttttt:¿ if you figure it out tell me how

Yeah i def will. Look on youtube people can do it for real. You gotta like train ur mind to do it. Idk though lol.

I will. That would be wack if people could fly and stuff

I hope this helps.

ETA: note that texting teens have also dropped the use of caps for common abbreviations like lol, omg, idk. Also, I noticed in your original convo you had ur and u'r. As you can see from my teen's text, ur is still used, but putting the apostrophe in u'r (even on a smartphone) would be a pain in the butt and not likely to happen.

Cyia · Feb 18, 2012

A word of caution - too much text speak, while authentic, may make agents/editors leery.

I had a couple of conversations like this and was asked to tone down the texting jargon. Readability trumps authenticity in the end.

Mark G · Feb 19, 2012

blacbird said:
Go consult a "modern teen" who spends six or eight hours a day texting all his/her social contacts. Offer to purchase cell phone minutes. That oughtta work.

caw

That's exactly what I'm doing with this thread. I'm hopeful that the teens here will help.

Mark G · Feb 19, 2012

jaksen said:
Give it to a teenager who texts a lot. Ask her to edit it for you.

But I've been told, by a teenager, that lately a lot of them do not use the 2 for two or 4 for four, etc. They write more things out and use fewer abbreviations. I said why? She shrugged.

By the time a book is published with texting in it, maybe the kids will be writing in formalized English with correct punctuation. Just to be rebellious, ya know?

Like I said, if I had access to a teen who texted a lot, I wouldn't be posting this thread here. Thanks for the thought.

Mark G · Feb 19, 2012

MttStrn said:
One thing to note is that many teens (and adults) seem to text multiple times as opposed to one long line.

Thanks!

rachelmachelsmachel said:
Keep in mind not all teenage girls text the same way, like some are really bad with abbreviations and others use them a lot less.
...
Source: My own bad texting habits...

Thanks!

randi.lee said:
I know this has been answered several times already... but it just seems like a fun game so I'm adding mine, too!

Thanks!

Devil Ledbetter said:
I think I know why the popularity of numbers in place of words/letters has dropped away of late. More teens now have smartphones with qwerty keyboards and autofill/autocorrect. There is no longer any time saved by typing a number.

I just had my high school freshman read the text conversation in the OP. Her response was "Ew. I don't know anyone who texts like that."

I asked her if she was willing to share a real life teen text conversation here, and she was. The conversation is between her and a boy who is a junior. Here it is, spelling, capitalization and punctuation verbatim:

I hope this helps.

ETA: note that texting teens have also dropped the use of caps for common abbreviations like lol, omg, idk. Also, I noticed in your original convo you had ur and u'r. As you can see from my teen's text, ur is still used, but putting the apostrophe in u'r (even on a smartphone) would be a pain in the butt and not likely to happen.

Very informative, thanks!

Cyia said:
A word of caution - too much text speak, while authentic, may make agents/editors leery.

I had a couple of conversations like this and was asked to tone down the texting jargon. Readability trumps authenticity in the end.

Definitely something to think about. Thanks!

Need Help translating into "modern teen texting lingo"

Mark G

Author of Reborn to Bite

Mark Moore

buz

edits all posts at least four times

Mark G

Author of Reborn to Bite

buz

edits all posts at least four times

MttStrn

Action is my reward..that and bacon

rachelmachelsmachel

rachelsmachel

rachelmachelsmachel

rachelsmachel

blacbird

Smiling Ted

Ah-HA!

randi.lee

Certified Non-Genius

tedi.s

Demigods, wolves, & Vamps... Oh my!

jaksen

Caped Codder

Devil Ledbetter

Come on you stranger, you legend,

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny

Mark G

Author of Reborn to Bite

Mark G

Author of Reborn to Bite

Mark G

Author of Reborn to Bite