- IIRC is one of the most recurrent silgas in electronic or digital media, one of the many that was born in the 90s, but one of the few that has managed to be popular until today.
- Beyond generally referring to an inaccurate notion of something, on certain occasions it can refer to an ironic statement, so we teach you how to use it, of course, and how to know how to read it.
If you have received a message that includes this acronym, or you have received a notification in which you meet it for the first time, you are probably wondering what IIRC means, and how you could use it too and save time. In that case, you should read this article in which we investigate it thoroughly, and we give you the keys you need..
First of all, we must clarify that this acronym is not as common as others, although it does belong to that universe of classic Internet and electronic media abbreviations, with which it is intended to take less time to write a text. Of course, this can sometimes lead whoever reads that text to have certain difficulties in understanding it.
So what does IIRC mean?
In all these digital fields, the inclusion of the acronym IIRC must be translated as " if I remember correctly ". As you can see, it is a statement about the doubt of whether or not you have an exact memory about something, someone or a situation. If you are not sure, or want to be sarcastic, you can use IIRC in your messages ..
In most cases, people use IIRC when they try to remember something correctly but fail, using the leading conditional, to make it clear to the interlocutor that they are not convinced that this is the case. "IIRC, you left the keys on the couch again" could be a good example of what we are discussing.
As we said before, in the same way you can incorporate the acronym IIRC to add a touch of sarcasm or irony. You will discover that in many websites where users use this acronym, it is recurrent that they include it at the beginning or at the end of their answers, to treat others with contempt and devalue their ideas..
Anyway, the most common is that any of us will use IIRC because we are not really sure or convinced of something, or because we do not have enough time to corroborate it .
"Apple does not have a folding mobile, IIRC" could be an example of this , since whoever makes the comment presumes or thinks they remember that Apple does not actually have a folding mobile, although it warns the other that it is not sure.
An extremely popular phrase
Unlike other acronyms such as NSFW, which we do not use so daily when we speak, in the case of IIRC it is a phrase that we include in our vocabulary all the time, to which we are already used.
Therefore, we could say that "if I remember correctly" has been a subtle way of injecting some courtesy into our words for decades . But modesty, insecurity or sarcasm can also be inferred .
In any circumstance, it cannot be surprising that IIRC became popular on the Internet in the '90s, considering that people were looking for quick ways to communicate their feelings while spending as little money as possible. In case the youngest did not know, SMS were charged by characters.
IIRC was a simple and natural solution, considering that its meaning is ingrained, it comes from an everyday phrase. Today, it is still common to find this abbreviation on platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, Slack or Discord .
How should you use IIRC in your day to day?
IIRC is extremely easy to use because, being a rather straightforward abbreviation, it follows the same grammatical rules that apply to the phrase from which it is derived, "if I remember correctly."
We could say, in fact, that the only thing we should look at in order not to err is the context , always trying to detect the presence of courtesy, sarcasm or uncertainty in a sentence.
If you do eventually choose to use IIRC in the future, you will find that it is common enough that most people know what it means. If you do not fail in the choice of context, you will look good and fashionable.
Now that you know what IIRC stands for and how to use it, have you incorporated it into your daily messages?