The internet has been around long enough now to generate it’s own language. If you aren’t familiar with the language, it’s much of the same lingo that you see from people who send cellphone text messages often. I’m talking about stuff like “lol” and “brt.” If you don’t speak Internetese, your kids do, and they speak it fluently. It basically started in chat interfaces such as IRC and AOL instant messenger, with kids all around the country using short-hand lingo to create their very own dialect.

Most of the language is based on acronyms. An acronym is a word where each letter represents another word. Internetese is English short-hand slang. With Internetese it is very easy to say several words in one simple word. For example the word lol means laugh out loud, and is often used to signify that the writer is laughing as a result of the conversation.

Below is an incomplete list of some of the most commonly used words in Internetese.

It’s important to always keep learning. Since the internet isn’t going anywhere, you should learn some Internetese.