A guide to emoticons: how to figure them out and not get into an awkward position

What do the different smilies mean?

With smiley objects, everything is simple: they mean what they represent. A ball is a ball, an alarm clock is an alarm clock, and there is nothing to think about. But with smiley faces, the task becomes more complicated. We do not always manage to correctly guess the emotions from the faces of living people, let alone the physiognomy of the koloboks. There are emoticons, the meaning of which is obvious:

- fun, laughter, joy, jubilation.

- sadness, sadness, longing, discontent.

- playful mood, teasing.

- surprise, amazement, shock, fear.

- anger, resentment, rage.

and a few more similar ones - all possible options for families and romantic unions.

But there are some among the emoticons, the meaning of which can be interpreted ambiguously, or even bewildered:

- this emoticon depicts a person sobbing at three - well, at two - streams, however, in the version for Apple devices, due to raised eyebrows and a mouth that is not twisted from sobs, he is often perceived as laughing to tears. Be careful with him: you want to indicate grief to them, but they will misunderstand you.

- according to the idea, this smile should represent silence. Instead, he just scares to death.

- if with an evil devil

everything is more or less clear ("angry as devil"), then the cheerful demon is somewhat puzzling. Most likely, he is not only furious, but also anticipates how he will dance on your opponent's grave. And you, perhaps, just wanted to show originality and send a smile with an unusual smile.

- despite the fact that the three wise monkeys did not see, hear and did not speak precisely because of their wisdom, these muzzles close their eyes, mouth and ears from shame, confusion and shock.

- a set of feline emoticons for those who think that ordinary koloboks are not expressive enough and want to add sweetness to their emotions.

- instead of "hello" and "goodbye" you can wave your hand.

- hands raised up, a gesture of joyful greeting or jubilation.

- applause, both sincere and sarcastic.

- if in this picture you see hands folded in a prayer gesture, then for you emoji can mean "thank you" or "I beg you". Well, if you see the "high five!"

- a raised index finger can emphasize the importance of the message or express a request to interrupt the interlocutor with a question, or it can simply point to the previous message in the chat.

- fingers crossed for good luck.

- for someone it is "stop", but for someone "high five!"

- no, this is not a truffle. Not even a truffle at all.

- ogre and japanese goblin. It seems that someone is missing the usual devils.

- Lier. His nose grows like Pinocchio's every time he lies.

- these are eyes wide open in amazement, and the shifting eyes of a rogue, and even a lustful look. If someone sends you such an emoticon in the comments to the photo, you can be sure that the photo is successful.

- and this is just an eye, and it is watching you.

- a young moon and a full moon. It seems to be nothing special, but these smileys have their fans who appreciate them for their creepy facial expressions.

- a very common girl in purple. Her gestures mean OK (hands over head), “no” (arms crossed), “hello” or “I know the answer” (hand up). This character has another pose that baffles many -

… According to the official version, it symbolizes the help desk worker. Apparently, she shows with her hand how to get to the city library.

- do you also see two tense faces here, presumably unfriendly? But they didn't guess: according to Apple's tips, this is an embarrassed face and a stubborn face. Who would have thought!

By the way, you can see tips for emoticons in the message window on macOS if you open an emoji and hover the cursor over the emoticon you are interested in. Like this:

Another way to find out the meaning of an emoticon is to seek help from emojipedia.org. On it you will find not only detailed interpretations of emoticons, but you can also see how the same emoticon looks on different platforms. Many unexpected discoveries await you.

Where are emoticons appropriate?

1. In informal friendly correspondence

Funny yellow faces are appropriate in a personal chat, where you share not so much information as your mood. With the help of emoticons, you will laugh at a joke, sympathize, make faces at each other. This is where emotions really belong.

2. When emotions are overflowing and words are not enough

Sometimes, when something very important happens in our life, feelings overwhelm us so much that we are about to burst. Then we write an emotional post on Facebook or post a dazzling photo on Instagram and decorate it with a generous scattering of emoticons. Someone, of course, will not like it, but what now, stifle all the vivid sensations in yourself? The main thing is not to abuse such a public manifestation of violent emotions: it will alienate subscribers and question your adequacy.

3. By agreement to highlight a message in work correspondence

This is a very simple and convenient way to make important messages that require urgent attention visible. For example,

great for these purposes. But you need to agree in advance which cases in your company are considered urgent and which smiley you will use for this.

It is important not to overdo it: if you have one emoticon for emergency messages, the second for urgent questions, and the third for important news, then soon all work correspondence will turn into a New Year's garland that no one is looking at.

When is it better to do without emoticons

1. In business correspondence

Work is not a place for emotions. Here you are required to be calm, collected and professional. Even if you want to emphasize your goodwill or express concern about the situation, use words for these purposes, not emoticons.

2. When dealing with foreigners

This is especially true for emoji gestures. For example,

to whom you want to express your approval will end your good relationship with someone from Greece or Thailand. Still, because with this gesture you sent him to hell.

Therefore, if you are not sure of your deep knowledge of the peculiarities of the national culture of your interlocutor, do not risk it.

3. Oddly enough, when you discuss feelings and emotions

Feelings are serious business. If you are not just chatting, but opening your soul or sharing something important, words will convey your feelings and experiences much more accurately than emoticons. “You are dearer to me than anyone else in the world” means much more than ten hearts in a row. In the end, you have only one heart, so give it.

Remember, emojis are a condiment, not a main ingredient. To give expressiveness to your message, you need very few of them.

Emoji language

Judging by the fact that today almost no personal correspondence is complete without emoticons, we can safely say that emoji have become an independent section of the language. Sometimes they even pretend to replace the language: you can write a whole message using only emoticons. The popular American TV show Ellen DeGeneres even has a special section in which guests are invited to read a phrase where part of the words are replaced with emoji:

And here is the encrypted title of the film, which we invite you to guess: