The use of AF in the US.

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Charlie Bernstein

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So, it is just a non-standard way of putting stress on something or making it more emphatic, like
"I am high af" means "I'm over-drunk", or I'm extremely drunk". and it has nothing to do with comparison and since it's non-standard, no grammar rules apply here.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this is the conclusion I can make from your post.

You're exactly right on every point.

In fact, you're right AF!
 

Aamir Tariq

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There is no need to apologise, Aamir Tariq. You did not intend to cause offence. In an ideal word, your original post would bother nobody. I, personally, agree with J&K (post #14) and expressed similar views in this forum several years ago. However, I understand the points Tdol made (post #15).

UE can be of real value to young learners. If our insistence on writing f**k in full leads to young learners in some countries being deprived of access to UE, then I will go along with asterisks.

Thanks, now what is UE? kindly write within parenthesis what an abbreviation stands for, when you are using it for the first time in a thread. Because every learner from different countries doesn't understand every abbreviation. It would be of great help.
 

Aamir Tariq

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We must live in a yellow submarine.

Would you please let me know what you meant by typing "We must live in a yellow submarine"?

I googled it and I only learned that it was a song by The Beatles.

However, here is the conclusion I drew from your post.

The world has become a global village, we have gotten more closer than ever before owing to new innovations in science and technology so we should have developed an understanding of how we communicate with each other as well as we should have gained some knowledge about different products that are available on the internet for everyone (in the world) to use.
 

emsr2d2

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Thanks, now what is UE? kindly write within parenthesis what an abbreviation stands for, when you are using it for the first time in a thread. Because every learner from different countries doesn't understand every abbreviation. It would be of great help.

UE is Using English - this forum!
 

Tarheel

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Thanks, now what is UE? kindly write within parenthesis what an abbreviation stands for, when you are using it for the first time in a thread. Because not every learner understands every abbreviation. It would be of great help.


Or:

It would be a great help.

You will find that UE is a common abbreviation here.
 

GoesStation

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Would you please let me know what you meant by typing "We must live in a yellow submarine"?

I googled it and I only learned that it was a song by The Beatles.
It certainly is. I merely thought Piscean and I were apparently the only people unaware of the term "AF". A logical conclusion would be that we live cut off from society, like submariners. The entry of periscopes into the discussion encouraged my folly.

A little tweak of the Beatles lyric gave me a mildly clever way to express this, for which I was awarded with at least one "like".
 

emsr2d2

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I wasn't aware of the use of "AF" in this way though I could probably have worked it out from context had I seen it somewhere. However, I don't use any of the apps or websites you mentioned, and my friends, family and I all use full words and correct punctuation in our emails, text messages and any other written material. It's a generational thing, I think.
 

Tdol

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I am extremely sorry for using it without asterisks, I shouldn't have used it and I had no intention to offend anyone at all.

I know that- don't worry about it. ;-)
 

Tdol

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There is no need to apologise, Aamir Tariq. You did not intend to cause offence. In an ideal word, your original post would bother nobody. I, personally, agree with J&K (post #14) and expressed similar views in this forum several years ago. However, I understand the points Tdol made (post #15).

UE can be of real value to young learners. If our insistence on writing f**k in full leads to young learners in some countries being deprived of access to UE, then I will go along with asterisks.

In the past, we took a more cavalier attitude to this, but it did end up causing more problems than it was worth. A few years ago, we had demands from one search engine that we removed some swearing from a particularly fruity post or be banished; this was during a cry of moral outrage for search engines to do something about the discourse online, though I think that has been kicked into touch. Minor censorship allows anything to be discussed, so it seems a small price to pay to me. If they then say that we cannot discuss things with asterisks, they can go f**k themselves. :-D
 
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Aamir Tariq

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It certainly is. I merely thought Piscean and I were apparently the only people unaware of the term "AF". A logical conclusion would be that we live cut off from society, like submariners. The entry of periscopes into the discussion encouraged my folly.

A little tweak of the Beatles lyric gave me a mildly clever way to express this, for which I was awarded with at least one "like".

So, I drew the wrong conclusion, thanks for correcting me. You mean those who live in "a Yellow submarine" are secluded or cut off from society. Now I got it right.

Thanks for introducing me to yet another term in the end of your post, i.e, "to encourage my folly". It sounds American to me. I looked it up in the Urban dictionary but couldn't find the meaning. However, I saw a couple of results in my google web search. Here they are.

Before we go any further: remember, if you find this behavior to be pathetically yet hilariously geeky, entertainingly sad, and/or usefully time-wasting of me, you can encourage my folly via hitting the tip jar.

You have no right to encourage my folly for your own amusement, and then tell mo that you never thought I was in earnest.
 

GoesStation

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Actually, "to encourage my folly" has a distinctly British feel to it. Years of reading The Economist planted a number of Britishisms in my vocabulary.
 

Aamir Tariq

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Actually, "to encourage my folly" has a distinctly British feel to it. Years of reading The Economist planted a number of Britishisms in my vocabulary.

Even if it is British, you used it. Can't you explain it to me? Because I found no definition after my Google search.
 

Tarheel

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Encourage my folly - encourage me to keep doing what I've been doing by supporting me in some way
 

GoesStation

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Encourage my folly - encourage me to keep doing [STRIKE]what[/STRIKE] the foolish things I've been doing by supporting me in some way
I think my version better expresses the meaning of folly.
 

Tarheel

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I think I understand Aamir's confusion now. Like me, he doesn't think anybody would do anything foolish on purpose. (Perhaps the expression is meant ironically.)
 

GoesStation

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It's an example of self-deprecating humor, a style which does not translate well into some cultures.
 

Charlie Bernstein

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The abbreviation AF is very commonly used online, presumably to avoid both profanity and asterisks.

Every day I see many instances of {adjective} AF. Everyone knows what it means.

Wrong.

Probus, I'm somebody, and I've never heard or seen AF until this thread. Never. And I'm online almost every day.

You're reminding me of all the store clerks who say they don't carry what I'm looking for because nobody wants it. I make it clear that I am somebody and I want it.

Then I take my business somewhere where the clerks think I'm somebody.

12/12 PS - Sorry to sound so snarky! I got turned down for a bunch of jobs a few years ago because I don't have a cell phone or use Facebook or multi-task (as if that's possible!). So your "commonly used online" bit hit a button.

At one interview, someone asked me what kind of calendar I had. I said it was a monthly planner I keep on the telephone table. The interview committee members all looked at each other. Then one said, "Telephone table?" And they all cracked up.

Bad enough. But then about a year later, I was telling that story to someone to explain why I'd retired. When I got to that part, he said, "Oh! You're the telephone table guy!"
 
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Aamir Tariq

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It's an example of self-deprecating humor, a style which does not translate well into some cultures.

Don't worry, We've long been watching American movies, dramas on cable and satellite television so I do understand American culture well enough to understand your example.
 

Aamir Tariq

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There might me a thousands of other expressions that we don't find in dictionaries either online or in print media. So I suggest such expressions along with their meanings be added to the word lists provided on forums like UE and elsewhere to help people like me (who are passionate about learning new things).
 

Tdol

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You could also try UrbanDictionary for the latest in slang and colloquial usage. There's a lot of rubbish on it, but it does catch the latest examples of such language.
 
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