Shortening words

Omalinda, I’m with you on that, especially the ‘Dear ‘ (D) ….DH, DD, DS. etc.

Disagree (kindly). Would find it tedious and laborious to do close relatives in full. Middle name must be lazy! I also enjoy the challenge working out the less well known ones. Sometimes takes me ages before the penny drops.

What I don’t get is why everyone is “dear” I have a husband, daughters and grandchildren. Not a Dh ect.

I find it nigh on impossible to put DD or DH or D anything. Husband, child, grandchild is the way to go for me. But whichever is fine in the greater scheme of things.

I’m a bit of an abbreviation-phobe too. I think the only one I use with any frequency is OH which has been around for so long long now.

Mogsmaw

What I don’t get is why everyone is “dear” I have a husband, daughters and grandchildren. Not a Dh ect.

Who says the D has to stand for ‘Dear’?

I’ve been using the abbreviations for many years, since I started out on the internet in 1998. I’m not going to change now.

the extra D, for dear/darling is just a convention, and knd of wry in many cases, as a complaint about them often follows.
the other text speak style developed to fit into a text message.

I agree. I much prefer to use the whole word, but I often use the abbreviations when posting here, as it's what most other posters tend to do. It took me years to shorten words when sending texts/whatsapp messages (I still don't like to do it!), and my kids would end up calling me, as they said it took too long to wait for me to type a 'quick' response to their message!

The stupidly copied (from MN) dear /darling or whatever drives me mad I hate these stupid lazy acronyms why people can’t write sister (which could be son) instead of DS whilst at the same time moan about young peoples text talk is totally beyond me

as it's what most other posters tend to do why copy other posters nansnet I refuse to use those ridiculous DS s and
DD s how long does it take to write daughter ?? Why be a sheep
Just join me Omalinda and don’t use them we can’t change others but we can change ourselves so those that like them can use them, others who don’t DONT

I don't use them either. Dear this and that sound like something from Jane Austin

I don't use them either.
Predictive text on my phone recognises "mother-in-law" for example as soon as I start to type it so it doesn't actually take that much longer than an abbreviation 🙂

OMG

What irritates me is having to put stars in front and behind names to make the bold. Goodbye.

I tend to write the whole word, for my husband I use MrJ.

I use the acronyms, I have no problems and you do not need to work them out because at the top of the page, just under 'Active in the strapline is the word acronyms and that will take you to a list of said acronyms and their meanings.

We cannot have everything, the ease of typing rather than writing. Even all singing dancing word processing packages require you to do something at the beginning and end of any text you want in bold, or italic, or underlined.

I've been confused by DSIL meaning son or sister in law, but the ones that catch me out most are the abbreviated medical conditions.

No I don’t like them or use them especially when it’s an opening post that goes on and on and on and on.
I give them a quick speed read and if it’s littered with abbreviations I don’t bother reading the post properly.
I do the same if a long post has no paragraphs.

threexnanny that is one area, where I do spell things out in full when I first use it in a post, although I will then revert to acronyms.

The problem with medical conditions is that the full name is often long and complicated and the acronyms are used all the time in the medical world that they actually become second nature.

I also think that for the person that has, for example, a chronic problem, to refer to it with a couple of letters, somehow reduces it down to size. My DDiL (and she is very dear to me) has rheumatoid arthritis, a real mouthful and show stopper of an illness. reducing it to RA, somehow stops it dominating the sentence and the lsitener. DDiL, despite vaccination has COVID at present, she is recovering but her underlying RA is a worry.

I agree but getting used to it on here. I took my daughter to work and caught the end of Vanessa Felz on radio 2. She asked listeners to send in ‘deets’ for her show. Why not say details!

The abbreviations on phone messages get my goat.

I’m happy with them. They save time and become second nature after a while. Imho () it’s easier to type and to process DGD2 rather than my second eldest granddaughter. Yes, DS and DSIL can be confusing, but the meaning’s usually obvious from the context.

And no one’s forced to use them.

I dislike them. I have read several uncomplimentary ones about GPs or SILs only to realise they were describing grandparents, not doctors, sister-in-law rather than son-in-law. Not always clear from context.
For the sake of clarity one should always use the name or word in full once, before abbreviating, particularly in discussions about groups unfamiliar to some readers, for example trans, TRAs, terfs and others which feature rather a lot at present.

Just trawled through a political thread and had to look up two abbreviations I had forgotten: EDL, English Defence League and SPAD, Single Photon Avalanche Diode, apparently.

I'm with BlueBelle and Omalinda others can do as they wish we will not be moved