How do you abbreviate the word 'because' when typing or text messaging?
February 27, 2013 8:29 PM Subscribe
Whenever it comes up while I'm texting I come to an impasse. I know that I don't want to type the whole word because I have a dumbphone and I want to minimize thumb-wear. If I were writing a novel I would write it as 'cause, but I'm not so it's still too long. The phonetic cuz is clear and concise but somehow doesn't fit my personality or the tone of most of my communications. I started using cos but for some reason I associate that with UK English and I'm from the states and it doesn't quite feel right. What do you use and why, if there is a why.
bc
posted by sacrifix at 8:31 PM on February 27, 2013 [11 favorites]
posted by sacrifix at 8:31 PM on February 27, 2013 [11 favorites]
On my phone (which is an iphone, but perhaps this is possible on your phone as well) I can set my own abbreviations - so I could set my phone so bc would automatically turn into because.
If that's not an option, I vote b/c.
posted by insectosaurus at 8:33 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
If that's not an option, I vote b/c.
posted by insectosaurus at 8:33 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
B/c (also...get a smartphone...they're stupid cheap these days...try Ting.com)
posted by sexyrobot at 8:33 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by sexyrobot at 8:33 PM on February 27, 2013
as ... for ... since
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:34 PM on February 27, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:34 PM on February 27, 2013 [5 favorites]
bc for me, too.
posted by ocherdraco at 8:36 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by ocherdraco at 8:36 PM on February 27, 2013
'cos
(I think the apostrophe makes it work better)
posted by anonymisc at 8:39 PM on February 27, 2013
(I think the apostrophe makes it work better)
posted by anonymisc at 8:39 PM on February 27, 2013
Bc or b/c.
posted by catatethebird at 8:47 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by catatethebird at 8:47 PM on February 27, 2013
One of the downsides of electronic medical records is the loss of the rich history of abbreviations and acronyms used by physicians in a written language that was unintelligible to any lay person. "Because" was signified by "b/c".
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:50 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:50 PM on February 27, 2013
b/c or 'cos ('cos I picked up 'cos from reading too many British children's books as an American kid).
posted by scody at 8:56 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by scody at 8:56 PM on February 27, 2013
I often do go with "cuz". I wouldn't say it "fit my personality or the tone of most of my communications" either, but...it's a lot quicker. I'm on a regular phone too and any word with consecutive letters on the same key is a huge PITA, so I would pretty much just as soon type the word out in full than write "bc".
posted by threeants at 8:56 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by threeants at 8:56 PM on February 27, 2013
"bc" here as well. Mostly because [heh] I am now apparently so lazy I won't even include the /, which when I first got my smartphone I did.
posted by aclevername at 9:03 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by aclevername at 9:03 PM on February 27, 2013
bcz for me. I'm weird I guess.
posted by fiercekitten at 9:18 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by fiercekitten at 9:18 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
b/c for me, dating back to pre-smartphone note-taking in school.
posted by matildaben at 9:20 PM on February 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by matildaben at 9:20 PM on February 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
b/c, just b/c!
posted by Cheese Monster at 9:29 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by Cheese Monster at 9:29 PM on February 27, 2013
bc, because to do b/c takes an extra annoying step.
posted by dysh at 9:51 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by dysh at 9:51 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
Bc is a little unclear, and I prefer b/c, but it does involve an extra annoying step.
posted by ageispolis at 9:52 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by ageispolis at 9:52 PM on February 27, 2013
Five years ago, a lot of feature phones let you program 10 or so "quick phrases" (I think that's what they were called) that you could insert into a message via some sequence like menu | something | some digit. I think they were often preprogrammed to things like "When will you be here?" and "I love you." If that didn't die out, maybe you can create one of those for "because."
posted by ignignokt at 10:00 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by ignignokt at 10:00 PM on February 27, 2013
I can't believe no one else has said bcos.
posted by pink_gorilla at 11:17 PM on February 27, 2013
posted by pink_gorilla at 11:17 PM on February 27, 2013
I'm British and I use cz, which is widely understood amongst my peers.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:25 AM on February 28, 2013
posted by ellieBOA at 12:25 AM on February 28, 2013
If I'm trying to save time/effort, "b/c" as a holdover from note-taking. If I'm just typing colloquially, then "cause" (no apostrophe).
posted by asciident at 12:57 AM on February 28, 2013
posted by asciident at 12:57 AM on February 28, 2013
A semicolon often works.
"I can't go out today because it's raining."
becomes
"I can't go out today; it's raining."
A semicolon doesn't always mean 'because', so it's not as precise in its meaning, but it's usually enough for informal conversation.
If a semicolon doesn't feel right, a comma is usually fine. And while it's not technically correct you could use a hyphen - I use them all the time.
posted by fonetik at 1:20 AM on February 28, 2013 [4 favorites]
"I can't go out today because it's raining."
becomes
"I can't go out today; it's raining."
A semicolon doesn't always mean 'because', so it's not as precise in its meaning, but it's usually enough for informal conversation.
If a semicolon doesn't feel right, a comma is usually fine. And while it's not technically correct you could use a hyphen - I use them all the time.
posted by fonetik at 1:20 AM on February 28, 2013 [4 favorites]
Avoid writing it at all. In informal conversation, one sentence following another establishes causation.
I won't join you for lunch. I'm not hungry.
"I don't want to type the whole word. I have a dumbphone and I want to minimize thumb-wear."
You have to come. Its her birthday.
I'll be late. The trains are running slow today.
I can't go out today. It's raining.
And so on...
posted by vacapinta at 2:05 AM on February 28, 2013 [5 favorites]
I won't join you for lunch. I'm not hungry.
"I don't want to type the whole word. I have a dumbphone and I want to minimize thumb-wear."
You have to come. Its her birthday.
I'll be late. The trains are running slow today.
I can't go out today. It's raining.
And so on...
posted by vacapinta at 2:05 AM on February 28, 2013 [5 favorites]
A semicolon often works.
Except, if this person's dumbphone is anything like mine, it would probably take even more button-pressing to type a semicolon.
I just use "bc." There's never been confusion about my use of it.
Dumbphone users in solidarity!
posted by dean_deen at 2:50 AM on February 28, 2013 [2 favorites]
Except, if this person's dumbphone is anything like mine, it would probably take even more button-pressing to type a semicolon.
I just use "bc." There's never been confusion about my use of it.
Dumbphone users in solidarity!
posted by dean_deen at 2:50 AM on February 28, 2013 [2 favorites]
"cos". I am in the UK. "cuz" seems more US English to me. "cos" seems to phonetically fit my verbal contraction of "because" better.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:23 AM on February 28, 2013
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:23 AM on February 28, 2013
Australian, and I use "coz" which sounds right to me phonetically. My phone often autocorrects it to "cuz" in which case I let it go, but to me "cuz" sounds more like the abbreviation for cousin.
Bc and b/c are the ones I see most frequently.
posted by pianissimo at 3:27 AM on February 28, 2013
Bc and b/c are the ones I see most frequently.
posted by pianissimo at 3:27 AM on February 28, 2013
cos, cos when I was little I studied the hell out of my dad's Beatles sheet music book. It probably had an apostrophe, but I don't use it, 'cos txt. (I'm in the USA.)
posted by Devoidoid at 3:41 AM on February 28, 2013
posted by Devoidoid at 3:41 AM on February 28, 2013
Why not keep going with your same logic of minimizing thumb-wear?
Assuming no predictive texting at all, as on my old dumb-phone, and a standard US style keypad, I get
bc: 5 touches
cuz: 9 touches
cos: 10 touches
because: 16 touches
The periods and semi-colons probably rank around bc, but it depends on how hidden the punctuation is on your phone. Personally, I go with bc or punctuation.
On edit: Note that bc does suffer a bit in efficiency because b and c use the same key. You need to give the b a chance to settle before starting on the c.
posted by whatzit at 4:10 AM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
Assuming no predictive texting at all, as on my old dumb-phone, and a standard US style keypad, I get
bc: 5 touches
cuz: 9 touches
cos: 10 touches
because: 16 touches
The periods and semi-colons probably rank around bc, but it depends on how hidden the punctuation is on your phone. Personally, I go with bc or punctuation.
On edit: Note that bc does suffer a bit in efficiency because b and c use the same key. You need to give the b a chance to settle before starting on the c.
posted by whatzit at 4:10 AM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
bc. In handwritten form I write b/c, but I don't want to deal with that on my phone.
posted by J. Wilson at 6:12 AM on February 28, 2013
posted by J. Wilson at 6:12 AM on February 28, 2013
I use bc... and had to explain its use to my otherwise-abbreviation-friendly mother yesterday. I haven't given this a lot of thought, but I assume I saw the abbreviation somewhere and adopted it? I try to only use abbreviations in texting when I'm cold or wearing gloves, though.
I just searched my iPhone for 'bc' and have at least 6 contacts who use 'bc', one who uses 'b/c', and one who uses 'BC'.
posted by worstname at 6:51 AM on February 28, 2013
I just searched my iPhone for 'bc' and have at least 6 contacts who use 'bc', one who uses 'b/c', and one who uses 'BC'.
posted by worstname at 6:51 AM on February 28, 2013
If you're taking a survey, I use "because," because I'm a curmudgeon who doesn't use txtspk even in my text messages. (I also have Swype, which makes this a lot easier.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:55 AM on February 28, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:55 AM on February 28, 2013 [2 favorites]
Another bc user here.
posted by honey.orange.honey at 9:16 AM on February 28, 2013
posted by honey.orange.honey at 9:16 AM on February 28, 2013
I use "'cos" or "cos". I'm not British, but I first saw it as a child in Winnie the Pooh books and if it's good enough for Pooh, it's good enough for me!
posted by barnacles at 10:52 PM on February 28, 2013
posted by barnacles at 10:52 PM on February 28, 2013
I say "because". If I was worried about it taking too much time out of my day, I would add an autocorrect (or text expansion or whatever they're called) to my iPhone.
posted by Brian Puccio at 6:51 AM on March 1, 2013
posted by Brian Puccio at 6:51 AM on March 1, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by deanc at 8:30 PM on February 27, 2013 [15 favorites]