When you have a phone conversation by typing you cannot use your voice to show different meanings. That's why thing like spacing, brackets and abbreviations are used to give extra meaning and emotion to text conversations.
At the beginning of your call, remember to say who you are by typing your name, as the person you are calling will not hear your voice to recognise you by.
If you need to talk directly to the relay officer during a conversation
- use brackets around the words, for example [please repeat that]. This shows the difference between what you are saying to the relay officer and what you want relayed to the other person
- if you don't use brackets what you say will be relayed
- the relay officer will also use brackets when talking with you, for example [please hold].
| Common abbreviations |
| Important abbreviations when using a TTY |
| GA |
Go ahead. When the other person sees this they know it is their turn to respond. |
| GA to SK |
You are ready to hang up. This is similar to changing your tone of voice to show you are ready to hang up. It allows the other person to say good-bye and hang up. You can also type "BYE TO SK" |
| SKSK |
Stop keying. It is usually typed as SKSK and the other person will respond in the same way. Do not type just SK as this is considered rude, like hanging up without saying goodbye in a voiced conversation. |
| Other useful abbreviations |
|
| Q |
Question mark. You can also use "?", "QQ" or "??" |
| XXX |
Erasing a typing error or part of a conversation. Can be used instead of backspacing |
| U |
You |
| PLS HLD |
Please hold |
| ASAP |
As soon as possible |
| XMAS |
Christmas |
| NBR |
Number |
| DR |
Doctor |
| THRU |
Through |
| TMW |
Tomorrow |
| MTG |
Meeting |
