When using MSN/email/Facebook... what type of English do you use?

[Kwello]

I'm new to this forum and I've noticed that typically everyone actually is very literate. They use proper sentences, punctuation, paragraph structure etc.

How much of this stuff goes out the window when you're chatting with a girl on MSN or something like that? I personally never start substituting u for you, r for are, 2 for to... but I notice lots of women type in 'l33t sp33k' over the internet.

I guess the question is do you maintain your aura of intelligence and professionalism by sticking with proper English or do you try and do some personality matching and speak in similar language as they do?

I'm not anal about this stuff, I don't capitalize the first word of an MSN chat for example... but I really feel like using all these substitutes comes off as looking dumb.

Thoughts?

 

[itishe]

The kind you want.

 

[Kwello]

The kind I want is proper English with no abbreviations. But there's a chance that by doing that and not attempting to mirror their conversational habits, you run the risk of seeming pompous or cold.

Conversation mirroring is a pretty effective tool... so I'm wondering if anyone puts it into effect during e-conversations.

 

[Monaco]

Kwello- I'm the same way, you should stick with what you're doing, most intelligent girls would do the same.

 

[Obsidian]

i like to not capitalize the first word in a message/post, even if it's an "I." But then I usually capitalize the first words of the following sentences. And I'm willing to use conjunctions at the beginning of sentences -- even tho that's lame if you do it in papers. And I usually shorten the "ough" words like "through" and "though." And throw in some regional colloquialisms like "y'all" and spell them correctly. And if a phrase is really short or not a complete thought I'll leave the punctuation off the end. kinda like this

But using "u" instead of "you" would just be gay.

AIM is kinda for n00bs anyway, but since you asked...

oh yeah, and for emails i like to use good grammar. Kinda

 

[Kwello]

Yeah stuff like U and R have always come off as being very gay to me. It's so far from my personality to say something like "r u going 2 the gym now?" but yet several HBs I like chat like that and I've seen lots of pretty cool guys who chat like that too.

Anyway I think I'll stick with writing out full words. My grammar is really loose in casual chats though and I usually don't bother with capitals unless it's a long winded message. I chat sort of like this:

hey whats up?
what are you up to?
yeh, I might check that out too

It's casual... I don't come off like an idiot and I don't come off like some English professor either. Whenever someone chats with me using all out grammar it always feels forced and formal for some reason.

 

[Obsidian]

seriously