Most of the times, I don't lol. Yes, there's no loudness in my laugh at all. And, 'lol' is probably used by everyone on the Internet/mobile even though when they laugh little. 'lol' is also used when the matter is not of some joke [However, I strictly avoid such usage].
For instance, in chat…
I know you are at Ruby's house
lol, I've not visited hers for past one month.
Now, if I use 'haha', is it considered offensive? Especially to native speakers. Let's say, I'm talking to my client who is from London or NYC. If she says something little funny which should not be replied with LOUD laughing, is it okay to use 'hahaha'. Will she consider that as an offensive gesture?
For instance…
Julia: Hello Maulik, I was busy yesterday. Sorry, I could not contact you.
Me: That is fine.
Julia: Yeah…I was pissed off; my boss flooded my inbox with loads of work.
Me: lol/hahaha/haha I hope you are okay now!
Finally, does the number of repetition matter? "Haha" is okay but not 'Hahaha' which may have a bit of offensiveness?
Is it okay if I use 'lol' there? I don't think so…it's not something I'll laugh out loud.
I'd like to clear that in this example, Julia is NOT my bosom-friend. She's a client and we know each other for past 10 days. That's it.
Best Answer
In that particular dialog, I wouldn't use "lol" or "hahaha"; I think the exclaimation point handles it just fine:
Since you're not laughing about this, I would avoid anything like lol, haha, hahaha, or bwah-ha-ha. If you don't want to let the exclamation convey your surprised sympathy on its own, there are better alternative exclamations:
or:
or:
The word ouch might be considered a bit informal there, but Wiktionary supports such usage:
I don't think the problem here is that lol or hahaha are considered "offensive" – but they are inappropriate. I'm assuming you're not laughing at someone else's pain, but you are trying to show sympathy in a lighthearted way. Here's my advice: avoid using laughter to do this; save lol for things that both people would find funny or amusing.
This is how NOAD defines yikes:
I think that's closer to the emotion you are trying to convey.