If you've been joining in chat room conversations, or exchanging e-mails with net pals, you have become one of the millions who write in a special, short form of English. Throughout the world, every night children and their elders are "talking" online —many of them are talking at the same time. It's fast: it allows you to talk to six people at once. it's convenient: you can use three or four words per exchange. It takes cleverness, concentration and quick fingers. And it requires very simple language. There's neither time nor space for explanations. Why waste precious key-strokes telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB (= be right back) will do? Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI (= pardon me for jumping in). Interested in whom you're talking to? Type A/S/L, the common request to know your pal's age, sex and location. you may get 15/M/NY as a reply from your pal. If something makes you laugh, say you're OTF (=on the floor), or LOL(=laughing out loud), or join the two into ROTFL (= rolling on the floor laughing). And when it's time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG (=got to go) or TTYL (=talk to you later). People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can. Capital letters are left in the dust, except when expressing feelings, as it takes more time to hold down the "Shift" key and use capitals. Punctuation is going, too.