Another vote for “ur.” I can’t help reading it as it’s spelled, like the ancient city-state.
Reading something on my phone like “Are you going back to ur house?” makes me want to say, “My house is equipped with modern amenities. It’s not primitive at all.”
One thing that annoys me (and there are many) is when people write something like $500 dollars. It’s almost as if they’re talking about squared money.
I don’t think it’s irrational to be annoyed by u and ur. I do think it’s irrational that I hate the fact that we put periods at the end of abbreviations. It doesn’t matter if it’s mr., dr, or etc., that usage bothers me. Periods are for the ends of sentences.
OK Boomers.
I’m sorry, that’s the written abbreviation that bothers me.
what is it that bothers you about that bothering me?
This reminds me of the scathing putdown Cervaise laid on a telemarketer who had the misfortune to wander in here, and defend telemarketing, and who used single-letter abbreviations. That was almost twenty years ago, but I’ve never forgotten it:
Note that names/roles in square brackets have been added by me, for clarity. The whole thread is here, for anybody interested:
ETA: Needless to say, things like “Y?” and “ur” and “4” for “for” and so on, bother me too. If you can type one letter, you can type three or more just as easily.
I normally write “see you” instead of “cu” (which in Portuguese it means ass/arse, and is considered vulgar), because the person I normally meet for lunch is Brazilian.
I definitely think negatively of a coworker who uses “ur” instead of “your” and “2” instead of “to”.
I work with a lot of people who speak English as a second/third/something language. So I don’t mind spelling mistakes. I will tell them if they consistently use the wrong word (break/brake and waist/waste).
Another problem with abbreviations is that they are language-dependent. There are 3 official languages in Switzerland (German, French and Italian, with Romansch spoken, but not official), so all official organizations have three different abbreviations. English normally uses the German abbreviation, not the others. So it’s weird when someone mixes the French or Italian abbreviation with English.
Hah! Look through my texts and you’d see a huge number of “k” replies. I get a text from someone telling me all I need to know, “we are all meeting at 7 at the Rex will-call window. Tickets are in my name, so I’ll have to be there. See you then!”
I have nothing further to add, but want him to know I recieved the info, so “k” it is.
Yeah, it’s become my default response, similar to a thumbs up emoji for “I got your message” but I’m horrible at figuring out where the emojis are. It’s just become such a standard part of the IM lexicon that I’ve finally caved to it.
I wasn’t sure if you were joking or not. Complaining about a lowercase k when you don’t capitalize yourself.
My esteem plummets for anyone who adds “lol” to any kind of written/typed communication. But what really makes me want to commit bloody mayhem is “lololololol.”
Hey, dumbass - “lol” means “laughing out loud.” So what you’re saying is “laughing out loud out loud out loud out loud out loud.”
‘ok’ comes across just fine to me, ‘K’ would seem like screaming, but a lonley, lower case ‘k’ makes me feel murderous sometimes.
it’s the complete lack of effort put into it.
my degree of dislike I have with it rises proportionally with the amount of time, effort, research, or feelings I put into the original text being responded to.
it varies, from it being just slightly annoying, to the person may have well responded ‘I’d tell you to f*** off, but you’re not worth the effort’.
But “lol” is linguistically useful in those cases. It often sets tone in a written IM that would not exist without it (or an emoji or an ASCII smiley). And “lololololol” is simply reduplication, a linguistic phenomenon observed in spoken languages, as well. In this case, it acts as an emphatic, but, of course, you know that.
My irrational annoyance is “abt” for “about”. For some reason I’m not as annoyed at other, more common, abbreviations that only chop out two letters, but “abt” seems to have hit the strange sweet spot of common enough that I can get annoyed, uncommon enough that I always need to stop for a second to parse it out, and not short enough that I can appreciate the time saved.
Well, we are talking about irrational annoyances. I get that “lolololol” is supposed to convey that they’re really, REALLY laughing a whole lot. But to my literal mind, that’s not what it says. And besides, you know damn well that they’re not really laughing at all, so what’s the point? If you want to convey that something is meant in a pleasant/friendly/teasing manner, I’d actually prefer an emoji - I use them myself and find them marvelously useful.
I don’t know that at all. When I type lol or lolololol or whatever, I generally am laughing. But I do laugh pretty easily. My problem with emojis is that I have to find them. Much quicker for me to type “lol”. I guess [noparse]:)[/noparse] works as well, but doesn’t quite pass on the sentiment. But I suppose there’s also :b and [noparse]:D[/noparse], which are closer.
Occasionally at work, I’ll send someone a message on Slack letting them know whatever they requested is done, and they’ll reply with “thx”. I find this actively offensive. It just feels so entitled and dismissive, like their time is that much more valuable than mine. I may have spent half my day on their request, but they can’t deign to use a complete word to express their thanks.
If it comes to it, the superfluous ‘to’ in the above post is something that annoys me. Only slightly, mind you. And I don’t think it’s irrational.
The correct expression is ‘pisses me off no end’ which indicates there is no limit to your annoyance. The phrase ‘to no end’ indicates that something is done without purpose.
then the correct way sucks. I’ve never heard anyone say that the way you just did.
that’d be like saying ‘makes me mad no end’, and that doesn’t sound right either.
Some discussion here, including OED cites.