As a journalist, being chronically online is part of my job description. Well, technically speaking, it isn’t, but it does help to explain some of my scrolling habits. Most days, I surf social channels for longer than I care to admit, on constant alert for new trends, hot takes and topics triggering discourse – things I might want, or need, to write about.

I often find that, as a consequence, I adopt words and phrases sometimes exclusively used online; collecting little units of language like souvenirs from the many corners of the web I visit from day to day. I impulsively spew trending TikTok sounds to the blank and bewildered face of my partner, and subconsciously season everyday sentences with concepts and sayings unintentionally mined from social media comments sections. I’ll declare “girl math!” while justifying a non-essential purchase (even though I froth at the endless trends implying women aren’t smart), and quote viral one-liners (“I’m sorry you can’t be kind to a pretty girl for five minutes”) unprompted.

I know I’m not alone – I watch as tonnes of TikTok users repeat expressions learned online; comments sections stacked with the same words and phrases, written in different metaphorical ‘fonts’ (yet more online speak, this time highlighting subtle tonal differences in messages).

Being so wrapped up in words every single day of my life, I realise that not everyone is as obsessed with language as me. But there’s nonetheless a trend I’ve been observing – occasionally adopting – for weeks. It’s the ‘as a’ sentence-starter.

What the ‘as a’ sentence-starter trend tells us about relationships online