Americans are known for their shortening of words. This is due, as a rule, to the fact that they sometimes do not have time for long boring conversations, and for a faster exchange of information, some words are abbreviated.
First, the notorious “okay” came to us from people from across the ocean, which is increasingly replacing the word “good” in ordinary language, but now there are more and more incomprehensible combinations of letters that are really impossible to understand.
Youth slang
The tendency to use foreign words and abbreviations is usually attributed to the younger generation, in whose life quite a lot of time is occupied by Internet communication, including in English, from where these incomprehensible and illogical sets of letters that are used in everyday life life.
Knowing English, of course, it's easy to figure out what's what, but there are cases and much more neglected. While abbreviations like bye and k are easy to figure out, more complex letter combinations are problematic. For example, an unadvanced Internet user is unlikely to guess what is behind the combination "asap", or will think for a long time what "ofk" is.
Slang abbreviations for English words are mostly common among players in multiplayer online games, because that's where people often have to communicate on European servers, where the most convenient language for interaction is English. Sometimes gamers get so used to such communication that they unwittingly transfer it to their personal lives. And now the interlocutor is sitting and thinking: what is this strange “brb” or “ofk”? This is quite an interesting question, which we will try to uncover below.
What do the abbreviations mean
Many people still come to the conclusion that it is much more convenient to use abbreviations than, for example, to write “I will leave” or “I will soon” every time. Instead, you can limit yourself to three letters - “brb” or “afk”.
The first came from the stable English expression be right back, which means "speedy return." This is equivalent to the fact that a Russian person will say: "I'm literally just a minute." Another way to notify the interlocutor of a longer absence is to write “afk” to him. It stands for Away from keyboard, in the literal sense - "moved away from the keyboard." This abbreviation is convenient for correspondence and games.
Don't confuse "afk" with a very consonant, but completely different "ofk", since the definition of the word "ofk" is completely different. It comes from the English Of course, which means "of course." Simply put, the interlocutor absolutely agrees with you, and he has absolutely nothing to object or add. Often "ofk" is a sarcastic mockery of something thatthe interlocutor says. It means that the conversation is over, and they still don’t want to listen to you. The same as exclaiming “well, of course!” and wave your hands. Wrong example of the use of the abbreviation "ofk" in the meaning of "now", "this minute". Although some people use the phrase of course in this sense, this is not the correct solution.
OFC as an abbreviation
If everything is quite simple with English, then in Russian this combination of letters can mean something completely different. If on the modern Internet “ofk” is a buzzword used by fans of “hang out” on the Web, then users who are closer to reality can argue with them.
For example, for many, OFC means "official fan club", established by a group of fans and most often doing charity work on their behalf. Football fans may argue that the meaning of the words "OFK" is directly related to this sport and means either a team from Belgrade or the Oceanian football confederation. It is undesirable to argue with such people, because to some extent they are right.
Very rarely in Russian, OFK is a body of the Federal Treasury, but only people close to politics use this abbreviation.
Use of abbreviations
Having learned what certain abbreviations mean, some people begin to actively use them, often without being convinced of the direct meaning of these words. As a result, a person looks very stupid in the eyes of others. Naturally, you should not overdo it with the useabbreviations. Before generally actively introducing new words into your speech, you should ask what exactly they mean and in what cases they are applicable. The abuse of such buzzwords completely disfigures the ordinary Russian language.
Abbreviations can play a trick on people, because, having learned what “ofk” is, a person seeks to share it, and sometimes inserts it into his speech and is completely inappropriate. In business correspondence, such slang is completely inappropriate.
