Subtle things people say online that hints at their identity.

Gotham

I play lot of online games, and over the years I had fun surprising people by guessing info about them based only on the nuances of their conversation. Some of these are sweeping generalisations, but they do tend to be accurate.

1. People who add tildes at the end of sentences are usually Asian, more commonly South Korean or Japanese. When not in a game, it's usually a female. It's probably meant to be "kawaii", but guys do it too.
Example: "JohnsonX: How are you?~".

2. People who add curved closing brackets at the end of sentences are usually Russian, but possibly also Latvian and Lithuanian. This seems to be prevalent among cyrillic areas. The brackets attempt to emulate a smiley, usually using the built in colon as the eyes, but not required. The more brackets, the happier the person is.
Example: "JohnsonX: )".
Example: "JohnsonX: Hello))))".
Example: "JohnsonX: How are you?)".

3. Using "at" instead of "for", mixing up "for" with "to". These are typical Russian mistakes.
Example: "JohnsonX: I am going to lessons for learning English at 5 euro".

4. Asking questions that sound like statements (with or without the question mark), it seems to be a Spanish and Portugese thing. Remember that Brazilians and Mexicans also speak these languages. I've also known an Italian to speak this way.
Example: "JohnsonX: How to kill enemies".

5. Chinese people get their Rs and Ls mixed up. Less common in written English, but ask them to spell your name after you've spoken to them and said "My name is Harry Wallbacker".
Example: "JohnsonX: Hally Warrbackel".

6. 'Mericans use lots of "American spellings", look out for -ize words.
Example: "JohnsonX: I like the color of your aluminum armor".

7. Saying "GLHF" (Good Luck, Have Fun) in its variants, the player has either played a lot of Star Craft or has been exposed to people who have. The general rule is that these people are polite and good sports, a majority tend to be Brood War players, who would average between 20-30 years old.
Example: "JohnsonX: GL;HF".

7. People who say OMG or GOD a lot tend to be American. Surprise surprise.
Example: "JohnsonX: OMG! Why did you do that!".

8. French people have a really difficult time saying "squirrel". Only in spoken English.
Example: "JohnsonX: Squeah".

9. Americans use collective nouns differently, treating them as one unit instead of a collection of individual items.
Example: "JohnsonX: The army is marching up the hill". (British English: The army are marching up the hill)


I had more in my head but I'll write them down when I remember.

Kenny Logins

My name is Harry Wallbacker.

Seedy Arling

How ya now?

damagegt

Hi, My name is Mark

HTML5!

4. Asking questions that sound like statements (with or without the question mark), it seems to be a Spanish and Portugese thing. Remember that Brazilians and Mexicans also speak these languages. I've also known an Italian to speak this way.

This is because in the language, the statement is worded the same as the question, you just say it a bit differently.

krudler

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Duggy747

"Fùckin noob fàggot, piece of shìt queer fùckin' hacker. I'll fùck you up, brah!! Shut........shut the fùck up, dude..........I don't care, I'll fùck your shìt up you homo. Do you even lift, brah!?!"

American 12 year old.

Kenny Logins

krudler wrote: »

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Read that 7 times. What?

Gotham

HTML5! wrote: »

This is because in the language, the statement is worded the same as the question, you just say it a bit differently.

They leave out the "who,what,when,where,why,how" words though. I should have specified.
Edit: I misread what you said, you're right

brummytom

It's always nice to know there's someone with even more time on their hands than me.

juan.kerr

krudler wrote: »

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

This confirms my suspicion that you aren't a native English speaker.

My name is URL

Fascinating insights there... is there a newsletter that I can subscribe to?

AEDIC

OP...you have way too much time on your hands. I believe there is a whole world out there with real people to talk to where you find things out about them by like this new thing called talking to them.... it's cool...give it a try

Czarcasm

Gotham wrote:

7. People who say OMG or GOD a lot tend to be American. Surprise surprise.
Example: "JohnsonX: OMG! Why did you do that!".

Or from Dublin 4, but think they're American.

juan.kerr

Gotham wrote: »

6. 'Mericans use lots of "American spellings", look out for -ize words.
Example: "JohnsonX: I like the color of your aluminum armor".

Or they have an American English spelling checker, like I do...or they work for an American company and can no longer tell the difference.

drdeadlift

Hi im Anto

Gotham

AEDIC wrote: »

OP...you have way too much time on your hands. I believe there is a whole world out there with real people to talk to where you find things out about them by like this new thing called talking to them.... it's cool...give it a try

Real people? Have I been speaking to robots online?

I speak through many mediums, and those mediums and how people use them interest me

Gotham

juan.kerr wrote: »

Or they have an American English spelling checker, like I do...or they work for an American company and can no longer tell the difference.

Of course, I'm making generalisations. I know lots of non-Europeans who would have learned English the American way.

juan.kerr

Gotham wrote: »

Of course, I'm making generalisations. I know lots of non-Europeans who would have learned English the American way.

Thanks for clarifying. I hadn't realised they were generalizations.

By the way, who is JohnsonX?

Is he related to Malcolm X? In which case it may indicate that he may be African American?

AEDIC

Gotham wrote: »

Real people? Have I been speaking to robots online?

I speak through many mediums, and those mediums and how people use them interest me

Quite possibly....how would you know for sure But seriously... waaay too much time

Anyway gtg now, real people to interract with and not you personality guessing suckers goddam it ))))))) lulz... :rolleyes:

krudler

juan.kerr wrote: »

This confirms my suspicion that you aren't a native English speaker.

Que?

juan.kerr

drdeadlift wrote: »

Hi im Anto

Sup

Gotham

AEDIC wrote: »

Quite possibly....how would you know for sure But seriously... waaay too much time

Anyway gtg now, real people to interract with and not you personality guessing suckers goddam it ))))))) lulz... :rolleyes:

Your use of "g2g" "lulz" and smileys tells me you don't use face to face communication as much as you pretend you do.
Or your just being a clever hole. LOL XD

juan.kerr

Gotham wrote: »

Your use of "g2g" "lulz" and smileys tells me you don't use face to face communication as much as you pretend you do.
Or your just being a clever hole. LOL XD

Your use of 'your' is very telling...

Gotham

juan.kerr wrote: »

Your use of 'your' is very telling...

I make a lot of mistakes alright, fighting dyslexia is tough. I also missed a comma between my list of three there. x, y and z.

smash

10. Online Predators.
Example: "JennaXoXoXo_CumSlut: hi boys".

Pilotdude5

I only know one person on here and she knows me. HELLO Lia_lia!!

juan.kerr

Gotham wrote: »

I make a lot of mistakes alright, fighting dyslexia is tough. I also missed a comma between my list of three there. x, y and z.

And let's not forget g2g versus gtg...:D

Gotham

juan.kerr wrote: »

And let's not forget g2g versus gtg...:D

Ah feck you're ripping me apart!
I should have been more diligent in a post about the English language.

It's actually quite embarrassing because one of my jobs was heavily dependent on correct grammar and spelling. Guess I've just gotten lazy since.

fasttalkerchat

A few years ago:
fággot = American.
Queer = Irish.
But now we're using more American insults so that doesn't mean much.

I always assumed the tilde was an accident because they accidentally hit the hash key with enter.

The big one for me is people from the Republic of Ireland get taught and thought wrong and thread and threat... also younger posters ironically call others tick!

mardybumbum

I'm used to the ramblings of prepubescent angst ridden brats from the U.S as I play Call of Duty.
I was once called a f@gg0t over a game of online chess which did take me by surprise.

Gotham

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

A few years ago:
fággot = American.
Queer = Irish.

The etymology of fag­got is actually really interesting, there's a few theories but all of them point to a British/UK origin.

kfallon

Jaysus that JohnsonX is some hybrid of different nationalities :pac:

Problem123456

You have too much free time

homer simpson

Dddoooooohhhhhhhhh


uuuummmmmmm bbbbeeeerrrrrrrr

fasttalkerchat

Gotham wrote: »

The etymology of fag­got is actually really interesting, there's a few theories but all of them point to a British/UK origin.

Wasn't it something similar to being burned at the stake... burned at the ******.

Grayson

Someone on here sent me a message saying are you XXX?

They were 100% correct.

(I am Vin Diesel)