What do you mean by four and a half words?

The phrase "four and a half words" is usually used to describe a restrictive condition, such as the word limit of SMS. We all know that the conventional short message word limit is 70 Chinese characters or 140 English words, while some mobile phone short messages only have 64 Chinese characters or 128 English words. In order to better meet the needs of users, some mobile phone operators will relax the word limit and change the limit of "four and a half words" to "five words".

The word limit of SMS is generally set by mobile phone operators, which is mainly due to the technical limitation of SMS transmission. Because the short message transmission is transmitted through the signal tower, the efficiency and stability of transmission are limited. At the same time, in order to save costs, mobile phone operators will also limit the number of short messages. In addition, limiting the number of words can effectively avoid the generation of spam messages and ensure that the content of users' messages is true and reasonable.

In addition to short messages, we can also see the application of "four and a half words" in our lives. For example, the license plate number of some provinces can only be expressed by "four and a half words" because of the limitation of letters and numbers. In addition, subtitle translation in movies and TV series will also have corresponding word limits, so subtitle translators often need to consider the exact meaning of translation and the balance of words. In daily life, we can also use the concept of "four and a half words" to train our language organization ability and write concise and clear words.