In the previous article, we introduce some Japanese slangs that young Japanese people often use in their daily conversation. In today’s article, we introduce Japanese slangs that are used only on the Internet or online chats like LINE.

①笑（わら）

The first one is “笑”, which is same as “lol” in English. So, you can put this at the end of the sentence to show that it is funny.

②www・草

The next one is “w” or “草” and their mean the same thing as “笑”. Actually, this came from foreign online games. On those online games, the users can only type in English, so at first Japanese players type “warai” for “笑” but it got shortened to “w”. And “w” kind of looks like grass, so that’s why it’s also written as “草 (grass in Japanese)”. You can tell how funny it is by adding more “w”.

③り

This is often used in chats on LINE and it means “I understood”. At first, they used “りょ” as an abbreviation of “了解(: I understand)”, but they made it even shorter, so that’s why it is now only “り”（笑）.

④乙

This is an abbreviation of “お疲れ様（Otsukaresama）” as they took the first two letters “おつ” and picked “乙”. However, this is sometimes used ironically online.  

You won’t hear these words in the daily conversation, but if you see comments section of Japanese videos online, you’ll find people use these words!