Man consoling woman tfw meme.

What Is 'TFW' And How Can You Use It Properly? Here's The Meaning Of This Slang Term

You've been on the internet for tens, maybe hundreds of years at this point, and all around you people are saying TFW and "MFW" at a seemingly random assortment of situations. "That's it," you cry. "I'm finally going to figure this out." So you ask your friend, "What is TFW?," to which they reply, "TFW you don't know TFW," a brutal own from which you may never recover. Luckily, we're here to rescue you from this terrible fate and tell you that "TFW" means "That Feel When."

Cleverbot 7481 people taking Will you be my g? No, I refuse to be. out It! TFW REJECTION

Where Did "TFW" Come From?

Before the "F" in "TFW" came to stand for "Feel," it initially stood for "Face." 4chan threads from the late 2000s began lengthy threads posting humorous faces next to captions describing situations with the syntax "MFW when …" ("my face when") One of the examples submitted to Urban Dictionary in 2010 reads, ">mfw Soulja Boy is considered a musical artist near me."

MFW she told me not to do that


"MFW" posts eventually fell out of favor and were replaced by posts using "TFW," aka, "That Feel When." TFW was born out of the early 2010s popularization of the term Feels to describe an emotion. With the growth of the original Wojak (once known as the I Know That Feel Bro guy), "Feels" started as a way to describe sadness on messageboards like 4chan, as exemplified in the early "TFW" meme tfw no gf ("that feel when no girlfriend").

TEW NO GF

"TFW" Usage In Memes

"But wait," you may be thinking. "This isn't how I see the meme used today. Most of the time it's used like 'tfw mom come home and make the spaghetti' next to a GIF of a dancing frog." Very astute of you, strawman.

Eventually, "Feels" lost its morose context and came to stand in for any emotion, making it one of the forebearers of all reaction memes. While "TFW" memes see less use today than they did in their early 2010s heyday, you'll often spot them in the wild with hyper-specific scenarios, as the internet has come to use "TFW" in more ironic contexts.


Where Can I Use "TFW?"

You can use TFW anywhere on the internet and anyone with a bit of internet literacy will pick up what you mean. In terms of how to use it, however, a good rule of thumb is to make sure you're adding some humorous context to the image you're showing. If the image or GIF is ridiculous on its own, you could simply state what's happening or said in the GIF for an extra layer of irony to gussy up your meme.


How do you use TFW in a sentence?

  • “TFW mom comes home and make the spaghetti" [happy gif]
  • "TFW the spaghetti is overcooked" [mad face]
  • “TFW mom takes you to McDonald's instead" [very happy gif]



    For the full history of TFW, be sure to check out our entry on the slang term here for even more information.



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