Texting shorthand in a sung line
Texting shorthand is a way of writing rather than a way of singing: the letters stand in for words the vocal performs in full, and Genius wants the sung words in standardized spelling. Initialisms that are themselves said aloud — ASAP, OK, VIP — are left alone. Check the delivery before replacing this, since an artist who spells the letters out is transcribed as they sing them.
Convention: Spell deliberate mispronunciations as sung.
What this check detects
Written-only shorthand and the words it stands in for. An entry carries more than one wording where the shorthand genuinely reads more than one way. The expansion is never shouted to match an initialism-cased token: only a leading capital survives.
abt becomes about
b/c becomes because
bc becomes because
brb becomes be right back
btw becomes by the way
fr becomes for real
idc becomes I don't care
idk becomes I don't know
ikr becomes I know, right
ily becomes I love you
imo becomes in my opinion
lmk becomes let me know
nvm becomes never mind
omw becomes on my way
pls becomes please
plz becomes please
ppl becomes people
rly becomes really
rn becomes right now
smh becomes shaking my head
srsly becomes seriously
tbh becomes to be honest
thx becomes thanks
tmrw becomes tomorrow
ttyl becomes talk to you later
u becomes you
ur becomes your, you're
w/ becomes with
w/o becomes without
Example
[Verse]
Idk what to tell youIn the workbench this reads: Use “I don't know” instead of “Idk”.
[Verse]
I don't know what to tell youThe fix
In the workbench this finding carries one control, labelled Replace with I don't know. The change is contextual, so it is previewed as a diff in your document first and applies only when you confirm it.
The convention and its limits
This check detects the pattern shown above. An accepted example passes this check; it is not a review of the whole transcription.
Sources
The sources cited by this check:
Use standardized spellings (opens in a new tab) verified Preferred spellings with contextual exceptions Transcribe as spoken (opens in a new tab) verified Reflect distinct pronunciation unless a phonetic spelling harms comprehension