Popular Internet & Computer Symbols to Improve Your Vocabulary

Today I'm going to talk to you about some common

internet symbols that you probably see every day

and what those words are in English.

That's coming up.

So most of us use the internet every day.

Most of us probably use it too much.

So we see these symbols all the time.

These are symbols that are on the keyboard, but maybe you don't know what these names are in English.

And it's important to know the names because if we're

communicating with somebody else, especially in business.

We need to be able to tell people the right information.

Even for something as simple as giving out

your email address, you need to know these symbols.

What are these words? We need to know these words.

So I'm going to tell you.

So the first symbol that I want to talk to you about is this one, right here.

And if you've studied English grammar you may be

looking at this and thinking well, it's just a period.

Or maybe it's a full stop.

Well, it's neither one of those.

If we're talking about it as an internet symbol, it is just a dot.

When you see this if you're looking at a website

or talking about an email address, you would just say dot.

Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot.

This is a dot. So say dot.

The next symbol, this one right here, is also used

when we're talking about email addresses.

And you would just say "At."

If you're saying this symbol, you just say "At."

It's like you're pointing somebody to a specific location.

Where is it at?

So for example, if I were to give you our email address,

I would say it is....

Where can you find it?

You can find it at gmail.

And then everything pretty much always ends with a dot something.

All email addresses and most web addresses end with .com

But there are other dots out there.

But that is how you would correctly say your email address or or somebody else's email address.

At something, dot something.

Now, perhaps the most common internet symbol

that we use, and people even talk about this symbol nowadays is this one right here.

And it is called a hashtag.

And we use a hashtag as a way of labeling a conversation or labeling a topic.

Most of the time when we post stuff on Facebook

and Twitter, we will use a hashtag to identify that it's from us, Interactive English.

Just do a search, #InteractiveEnglish. See what you find.

Another symbol you might see is this line right here, and this is called an underscore.

Now this line is low. It's at the bottom because it's used

to underline words or phrases in order to give emphasis.

And I think it's more common that people use

an underscore in documents or passwords if they

want to make it look like there's a space in between the words.

So for example, I could write...

And now it looks like there's a space between the two words.

And that sometimes makes it just a little bit easier to read.

Next is a slash.

And a slash...we can make it a little more specific

and say a backslash or a forward slash.

Often times you don't actually have to say this word.

But it's always good to know what it means.

If I have a Documents folder, I'm looking for a specific file.

And you could say, well it's in...

That would be how to find this video.

Another internet symbol that you will encounter from time to time is this one right here.

And it is called an asterisk.

And we use an asterisk mostly to kind of make

a note about something, maybe a footnote.

Sometimes when you guys write a sentence in the comments like we asked you to do

I might point out a correction and use an asterisk

to make a note about that correction, so that you are aware of it.

Another symbol that you might see from time to time is this one right here.

And this is a hyphen.

If this is a longer line, then it would be called a dash.

So a hyphen is the shorter one.

A dash is the longer one.

Now, you're probably wondering...

What the hell is the difference between a hyphen and a dash?

Well a hyphen, which is the shorter line, is used to join two words.

And these could be compound adjectives like...

We could also use it with compound nouns.

A dash, on the other hand, which is that longer line, is used when we want

to add comments, statements, or emphasis to a sentence.

And there is a space on either side of a dash.

Another internet symbol that you'll see on your keyboard is this one right here.

And the caps lock just means that all the letters that you type are going to be capital letters.

We're using capital letters, maybe to give emphasis to something.

But caps lock is just a way of making sure that everything we type is in capital letters.

Another symbol that you might see from time to time this one right here.

And these are just called brackets.

And we use brackets...we put information inside them.

Now I don't think brackets are as common as these right here, which are parentheses.

So when we're putting information inside, and we want

to contain it inside an area, we mostly just use parentheses.

But in case you see these somewhere, they are called brackets.

I hope that you're able to learn some new words today, some of these internet symbols.

And if you have any other questions let us know in the comments.

If there are other symbols, and you want to know what this word is in English

write the symbol in the comments and we will let you know.

If you enjoyed this lesson, please share it with anybody

you know who's trying to improve their English skills.

As always, thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time.