'Lit', 'shippear' or NPC: dictionary to understand young people in 25 key expressions

From “efectiviwonder” to “alucina vecina”, “to the parrot”, “you carry it clarinet” and “like scaffolding”.

They are some of the most common old expressions a few decades ago.

But time passes and so does fashion jargon.

, NPC, ship

, be

, picket,

or pov.

EL PAÍS has analyzed what some of the most common expressions they use in their day-to-day life on social networks mean.

MDLR

MDLR —or mdlr— is short for “Mec de la rue,” a French term that translates as “boy from the street.”

It has become popular among young people, in part, because of singer Morad, a 23-year-old artist born in Spain and of Moroccan descent who describes himself on his Instagram account as "MDLR Ni madero ni chivato."

In his songs, he talks about what life is like in a working-class neighborhood, loyalty among friends or the difficulties to get ahead.

"Problems and money throw him off, but he wants to be first on the list," he says in one of them, referring to a MDLR. Claudia Martín San Segundo, 16, explains that this term is used among young people to talk about "who sometimes wear cani, with a tracksuit."

npc

NPC stands for Non Playable Character.

They are used in the gamer world to refer to a video game character that cannot be controlled by the user and whose behavior is usually automatic and preset.

Hence, this term is also used in networks such as TikTok or Twitter to talk about people without their own opinions, who do not think for themselves or who behave in a predictable way.

There are also those who use it to refer to people who are in the background in their lives.

While some users share videos explaining “real life NPC behaviors”, others try to “tell NPCs weird things” or “look for NPCS in the mall” and interact with them as minor characters. of a game.

pov

"Pov: you wait for the metro for more than 5 minutes in Príncipe Pío," tweeted a user along with a video in which a man appears eating ice.

POV, the acronym for point of view, comes from the movies and is commonly used on social media.

On Instagram alone there are more than 2.8 million posts with this hashtag.

Luis Pérez Alonso, 16, explains that it is used to "show how you react when something happens to you."

It is a way of telling something from a personal point of view, that is, from the eyes of the protagonist.

“For example, you can say 'pov: you find a teacher and he greets you' and upload a video showing how you would react”, says Luis.

'stalk'

Stalkear

comes from the English word

(harass) and means to gossip the profiles of other users on social networks.

For example, as Javier Pérez Alonso, 14, recounts, one can

his

or someone he likes: "Basically it is to enter his account and look at his old photos and videos."

He has stalked the tiktoker Charli D'Amelio on several occasions and points out that it is something that can be done “both with famous people and with the neighbor next door”.

While some users find out things they don't want to know when doing so and consider that doing so is "not a good option", others believe that it should be normalized and they even share tutorials to see who can help you.

'Crush'

Singers like Jimin from the Korean group BTS, actors like Robert Pattinson or politicians like Pedro Sánchez.

They are some of the

of Twitter users.

But what does this term mean?

"It is the person you like, a love that you have very idealized and, therefore, you believe that you will not be able to become their partner," explains Claudia.

Although sometimes, that

might not be as far a goal as one thinks.

“What did my gym crush ask me for, friends, that after a year we have achieved it !!!

My heart explodes ”, comments a user on Twitter.

And if it can't be, dreams always remain.

"I dreamed that I kissed my crush," says another user.

'Ship'

“I

one person with another.

That is to say, I think those two people fit together, being a couple, ”says Claudia.

On Twitter there are those who

the singers Aitana and Sebastián Yatra, the actors who play Aquaman and Superman and contestants on shows like La isla de las tentaciones.

There are users who go further and look for a

or name of the

combining the two names of the supposed couple: from Brangelina (referring to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) to Aiteda (referring to the former contestants of Operación Triunfo Aitana and Cepeda ).

While on TikTok some users say that after uploading a video together they have started to

others gracefully explain what their reaction is when they're matched.

be 'cheated'

"Being

means doing very well, with a good chance of winning in a game," says Pablo Martín Jiménez, 14 years old.

comes from the English verb

, which means to cheat, deceive or swindle and is used to say that a character or an ability contains extraordinary and unbalanced potential compared to the rival.

Doing a search on TikTok brings up multiple videos that include this

.

“The most checked shot of 2022”, indicates a user of this social network.

lit

Lit

is short for literally or literally.

"For example, you say it when you think the same thing as someone else," says Claudia.

Just do a search on Twitter to find examples.

“I'm sharing it here too because it's me”, comments a user who posts a video of a penguin walking on the ice and “following his dreams”.

Another tweeted: "I want to pierce my entire ear

be 'boque'

Being

means that you haven't gotten involved with anyone yet, according to Claudia.

On TikTok there are many videos in which this expression is used, which is an abbreviation for "being an anchovy".

From a user who "complains of being a boque but every time she is asked she says no" to one who also claims to be boque and urgently asks for advice.

"I'll be

but I haven't gotten involved with anyone out of desperation or social pressure," says another user while she dances to the rhythm of the music.

cajetan

“All my friends are called Cayetano.

Pompeii shoes, some have a boat”, says the song Cayetano by Carolina Durante.

This term, Cayetanos, has become popular on social networks.

Claudia points out that it is used to refer to "posh people, who wear vests and brands, but not the ones in tracksuits, but those who are used to be very dressed up."

"Maybe a little Cayetanos, yes we are," some users on TikTok admit.

Among the clothes and accessories that they usually wear, according to other Internet users, there are also boat shoes, shorts, Converse shoes and bracelets from Spain.

The 'jennys'

The

, on the other hand, "are like the chonis".

This is how Javier explains it: “They are usually dressed in tracksuits, with large hoop earrings and a bow.

They are like the MDLR, but in girls.

That is to say, the opposite of posh”.

On Twitter, a user wonders how she will explain to her children that in her time "young women differentiated between Jennys and Cayetanas."

On TikTok, there are various challenges and games with these terms.

"Turning my friend Jenny into Cayetana," says an Internet user.

Another asks for 3,000 likes to transform her friend between these two styles.

Picket

If for the Royal Spanish Academy a picket is a wound made with a sharp instrument or a group of people trying to impose or maintain a strike slogan, for some young people this word is also synonymous with

This is how Claudia explains it, who assures that it can be used, for example, to refer to someone dressing very well.

"The clothes are bought but the

is not," says a user on Twitter.

Another boasts on TikTok of his girlfriend's picket and "how beautiful she is."

Rat Boy

"A rat boy is the one who goes to school every day and as soon as he returns he eats and spends the whole afternoon playing video games until he goes to sleep," says Pablo.

Cecilia Sacristán Hidalgo, 19, refines the description: she is usually a boy between 9 and 14 years old who, in addition to addicting himself to video games, watches a lot of YouTube and Twitch and does not have many social skills.

It is a term that has been used for years and is used by streamers such as El Rubius, children who have fun playing video games and tweeters who assure that they spend the day "facing rat children in Fortnite".

F in the chat

F in the chat —or F— is an expression that is used when something is a total failure, according to Luis.

Javier, his brother, gives an example: “Imagine that I have made a cake but it turned out badly.

I can tell you, I tried to make a cake, but come on, F in the chat.

On Twitter, there are those who use it because they break a cup or get injured.

This expression comes from

jargon and, specifically, from the

video game , according to several users on TikTok.

When one of the characters dies, the protagonist has to pay "respects to him" by pressing F to continue playing.

Since then, the expression has been used both to show respect and when something goes wrong.

If I am

"Yes I am" is an expression used to indicate that one feels identified with a publication or with a situation.

“Imagine that you are seeing a meme that says 'when I say that I am going to bed for five minutes and I end up sleeping for five hours', if you feel represented, you would say 'yes I am'”, explains Javier.

On social networks like TikTok there are hundreds of examples in which users write this expression.

"When the DJ wants to troll me but I dance to everything," says one of these publications in which a young man appears dancing to different songs to the rhythm of the music.

'vibes'

The word

refers to the aura around a situation, a context, a place or a person.

This is indicated by Cecilia, who assures that there are many types of

: good, bad, interesting, rare... “You can use it to say that you have good vibes.

For example, if I'm going to take an exam and I've studied a lot, I tell my friends that I have

”, adds Javier.

On Twitter there are multiple examples: from the user who tweets "well, you are not a very good

" to the one who affirms that the

do not go with him and those who are looking for friends who do not get

weird

Red Flag

A

(red flag, in Spanish) is a warning or an alarm for a type of attitude or behavior that is not convenient for a person.

"Sometimes it serves to indicate that you walk away," says Cecilia.

Her 22-year-old sister, Marina Sacristán Hidalgo, gives some examples of

, such as someone "treating the waiters badly or not expressing their feelings."

In social networks this term abounds.

"If the guy you're dating right now, he does any of these things, he runs," advises a user on TikTok before starting to list several

Another identifies what she considers there may be in a relationship: from romanticizing "you're mine" or "I'm yours" to making jokes about leaving him.

parent

Among the buzzwords on social networks, there is also parenting.

“Padrear is used when a person says or does something that causes tremendous admiration at a given moment in their audience.

For example, when Fernando Alonso makes a great start, they say 'how the nano has fathered'”, says Juan Carlos Alonso Márquez, 27 years old.

There are other users, like Luis, for whom parenting has another meaning: "Doing a very simple TikTok dance that consists of raising and lowering your hand."

"It's a way of saying that you're cool or you're the best, something funny that is sometimes used as a joke," says Luis, who remembers that, for example, he uploaded a

to Instagram "fathering in the Grand Canyon of Colorado ”.

cringe

When a user says that something makes

, it is because they are embarrassed or embarrassed.

For example, Javier

some videos that he uploaded to TikTok in quarantine.

"I see them and I say how sad it was," he says between laughs.

Other users

at what people do to pretend, read their diary from when they were seven years old, or people who yell for a partner.

skull emoji

Dead laughing.

This is how many young people are when they use the skull emoji on social networks.

“It comes from the fact that the laughing emoticon gives us lache [shame] and our mood is to die,” Cecilia jokes.

When they laugh, there are those who use the expression LOL, an acronym in English that means

(laugh out loud) or LMAO, which comes from

and can be translated as “break your ass laughing”.

'Beef'

Of the

that Shakira threw at soccer player Gerard Piqué in a session with Argentine producer Bizarrap to rapper Residente to artist J Balvin.

In social networks, many users use this word to refer to hints that two or more individuals throw at each other in a confrontational tone.

"So much so that you claim to be a champion and when I needed you, you gave your worst version," Shakira tells Piqué.

Meanwhile, the

Ibai wonders between laughs if when the singer says "a lot of gym but works the brain a little too" she is going for him.

"Piqué has never set foot in a gym in his life.

[...] Can you imagine that he throws

at me because I go to the gym a lot weighing 200 kilos?

It would be spectacular,” she jokes.

'Random'

"Listen to my

(favorite) song at a

moment and in a

place is the most beautiful thing that has happened to me this week," tweeted one user.

This word can be translated from English as "random" and used to refer to something casual, which has not been planned.

It can also be used when something is weird, as Javier points out: “For example, if I go to TikTok and I get a video of an old lady singing a very modern song in karaoke or of a cat singing, I say 'how

why? I get this'".

'Periodt'

“2022 was a good year for cinema.

,” one user tweeted.

This word, according to Cecilia, is used to say "full stop".

“It's like saying 'say it', like it's a conclusion”, adds Marina.

That is to say, it is used to settle a sentence that one believes can hardly be refuted.

Its origin comes from the word

(point, in Spanish).

Some users indicate that, with the 't' added at the end, they seek to place more emphasis on pronunciation.

#fyp

When opening TikTok, in the home tab, one can choose between two options: "following", if you want videos only from users you follow, or "for you", if you prefer to see the videos that the social network have selected based on their tastes and interests.

The hashtag #fyp refers to

(for your page, in Spanish).

"If you put it in the description of your videos, it is supposed that you have more options to appear in for yourself and that the whole world sees it," says Javier.

Ratio

“When a tweet has many more comments or quoted tweets than retweets and likes, it usually means that people did not like it and it is called making a ratio,” says Juan Carlos.

As a result of this, according to his account, many users reply directly to a publication on Twitter by putting "ratio" to express that they do not like anything and disagree.

While there are those who ask other Internet users to “rate” certain messages, others celebrate that a tweet has a “deserved ratio”.

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