How To Use Emoticons

Step 1: When to use emoticons

Do not use emoticons in your writing if you are not sure the person receiving your message knows their meaning. If they do not understand, then what you thought was clearly a joke could be taken the wrong way. Emoticons are best used in emails and text messages between friends, who all share a common emoticon language.

Place an emoticon at the end of a sentence to set its tone, as you would an exclamation point for excitement or a question mark for puzzlement. Emoticons are also handy for putting after a particular word, if you want to change its meaning within the sentence.

Step 2: Common emoticons

There are many ways to draw faces using symbols, but the following examples are the most used and recognised:

:-0 :) =) :D =D means Happy
:-( :( =( means Sad

XP means Disgust, or a bad joke

XD means Laughing Hard

:-/ :-\ means Skepticism or Annoyance

:-| means Indifference or Sarcasm

;-) ;) means Winking

:-P :-p means Sticking Your Tongue Out or Blowing A Raspberry

B-) means Wearing Cool Glasses, indicating pride in something

8-| means Wearing Nerdy Glasses, indicating something is uncool

:-O =O :O means Shock or surprise

:-x means 'I shouldn't have said that', shocked silence or no comment

:-* :-** means A kiss, and returning a kiss

<3

Step 3: Complicated emoticons

It is possible to draw far more detailed emoticons using your keyboard. Remember, the more complicated an emoticon is, the less likely the person reading it is to understand if they haven't seen it before. Here are a couple of examples:

-<--<-- means A Rose, for flirting or apologising

<[+]=^( this is called 'The Sad Pope', for commenting on the morality of a situation

:-* From all of us at VideoJug