This post is about commonly used Abkürzungen (abbreviations) to use when you write in everyday life. You might have already seen some abbreviations listed below but never known what they meant, so here are the Übersetzungen (translations):

Abbreviations to use in emails:

LG   =   Liebe Grüsse:

Best regards – the literal translation would be “love greetings”. You can use this at the end of an email to sign your name.

zB.    =   zum Beispiel:

For example, eg.

bzw.   =   beziehungsweise:

Or/or rather – the literal translation is „respectively“. You can use it in a sentence like this:

Die Parkplätze sind für Kunden beziehungsweise Gäste reserviert.

The park spaces are for customers or guests reserved.

Ich komme aus England bzw London.

I come from England or rather London.

bzgl.    =    bezüglich

In terms of/concerning

Wir müssen uns unterhalten, bzgl der Pläne

We have to have a discussion concerning the plans

evtl.    =     eventuell

Possibly/perhaps

Kannst du mir evtl. zehn euro geben

Could you possibly give me ten euros

usw.    =    und so weiter

And so on/etc

Wir wollen einen Kuchen backen, wir brauchen eier, milch, mehl usw.

We want to bake a cake, we need eggs, milk, flour etc.

 

Abbreviations for texting:

A lot of abbreviations are taken from English such as “lol, btw, asap” so I won’t mention those but here are some German versions!

HGW    =   Herzlichen Gluckwunsch

Happy birthday

BB      =   Bis bald

See you soon – literal translation “until soon”

AKLA   =   Alles klar?

Is everything okay? – Literal translation “Everything clear?”

8ung  =  Achtung

Watch out/careful

BIDUNOWA    =  Bist du noch wach?

Are you still awake? I find this one funny as it’s so long you may as well write the sentence!

I hope you liked this post and that it will come in handy, whether you want to write some yourself or if you need to figure out what a text means. If you want to see more funny SMS (text) abbreviations you can find them on this website.