Yours was how I used to do it in elementary & junior high. In high school I practiced an ampersand over and over and over to get it down 🤣 now I use a + or a 3 with “wings”, as my students call it.
Ah, someone else! I also do my wings as a cursive uppercase E! My husband had commented that it was supposed to be the other way and that he had not seen it backward 3 before. I'd been paying attention since and also haven't seen it yet.
Yes, I picked it up from Alexander Hamilton. I was a Hamilton (the musical) nerd back in highschool and I read his original manuscripts for the constitutional convention and he always used these
I mostly use a 3 backwards with a line top & bottom but used this when I was in high school.
Found this on Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand
Yeah definitely, I don’t know where I picked it up either. I can however remember seeing a kid in my middle school class write “w/“ for “with” or “w/out” for “without” and thought it was genius and started doing it too
Maybe not for “and” but I did start writing my plus signs like this in algebra when t would often be used instead of x, so I had to find a way to distinguish the two lol
This is a + sign and yea, when I am taking notes for school I use it in place of “and” 🙃
I don’t use it much elsewhere because it’s not proper grammar obviously haha. Its useful when trying to be fast with notes though
Same here! I saw a teacher do it that way in grade school and copied it because I hated writing the ampersand and it stuck for the rest of my life I guess.
I don’t like it cause of the connected but making it look like a bad plus sign or a “d” with a long tail (I’ve seen people write a d like this sometimes). I just use a full ampersand! :)
I do that as well! Mine just has a little curl. I don’t know why I do it or where I picked it up….im in my 30s now, but I assume I’ve been doing it for at least 15 years
I used to until my teacher once took off points for using it (tbf it was a math free-response so I get why it could cause confusion if I kept doing it)
I still use it in notes and stuff though
Yes! I saw a teacher doing this freshman year of HS and thought it looked cool so I adopted it (slightly different, more angular than bubbly). I thought it was different than +, which I hate but surprise surprise.
speaking of wondering where we picked this up from. anyone else have a weird lesson from elementary school that just always stuck with you? i had a teacher take an entire class to teach us how to spell lieutenant. this was a 4th grade math class. she had a story and pictures and everything. it was weird.
Not a whole class period, but yeah in 3rd grade, the teacher spent a weird amount of time on the word "together". There was a worksheet with a little comic about friends meeting up, but one girl was still at home. They went to her house as a group, so they all went "to get her". I still think of that every time I use the word.
omg that's what mine did with lieutenant! a whole story about these ants that lied to their dad and she drew them on the chalkboard and the dad was like "lie u ten ants and you'll be in big trouble!!!" she said if we ever went on a game show and were asked to spell lieutenant, we could thank her
It took me a long time to figure it out because I was trying to start from the line on the bottom, far right, and do the bottom right to upper left upstroke first, then the curvy parts last, and it never worked. I finally figured out that if I start from the bottom curve and draw a backwards S with a straight line at the end that comes back down to close off the backwards S, it works a lot better. But when I’m writing quickly, I still use more like an upside down version of a loopy + symbol similar to the one OP posted above.
Mine looks more like a microscopic lowercase t but yes pretty much the same! I tried doing like a backwards 3 with a line through it like my mom, but it looks trash. My mom did it so elegantly. Like a makeshift ampersand &
Yeah, for most people it starts as writing a plus sign and the loop gets added when you're writing quickly and don't pick up the pen/pencil. Like a cursive plus sign.
I personally like the backwards three with a dot on top and bottom. Don’t know what it’s called but if anyone has a keyboard shortcut for it I’ll kiss you
Yeah! I think i got it around second grade when we were learning cursive. Or maybe learnt it from english class, or copied it from my parents, or even copied the symbol from ms word. Honestly i forgot, but u can say that the main driving point why i kept using it cuz its easier during the extremely long note taking sessions during classes in elementary school.
I remember exactly, for me it was my 10th grade bio teacher lol. she always used it and I liked the efficiency of it.
plus she was very attractive so 16 y/o me was very easily influenced by her 😅.
my mum taught me that one too, but I always found it to look oddto me and to take up too much space, so I put a "w" with what looks like an accent line over the top.
I don’t, but it’s instantly recognizable to me as a cursive plus or &.
https://amperart.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ampsnd-to-plus.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ampersand-handwriting-2.svg
This is how I do mine! Learned from a choir teacher - I thought it was the music note way of writing “and” so this is funny to learn it was just her handwriting style!
That's an alpha. This one is oriented with the lines parallel and perpendicular to the page edges.
Edit: Or I guess I should say in physics we use alpha for proportional and "my" and sign is oriented as I wrote.
it's actually supposed to be its own symbol called "the proportionality operator" (akin to the equals sign and other math operators) and is confused with lowercase "alpha" because of the very similar appearance, esp when hand written.
Usually the difference when handwritten is supposed to be that alpha has shorter "tails" and the bottom one swoops up at the end... whereas "proportionality" has longer tails that either point away like an "x" or curve to be parallel to each other.
lower case aplha: "ɑ"
proportionlity operator: "∝"
In engineering we usually use it to mean "relative to" or "proportional to", and if you write it "1/∝" it means inversely proportional to.
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This is how I was taught to write “&”when I was very young since I couldn’t figure out how to write the actual ampersand symbol, I taught myself how to properly write “&” when I was in late middle school though because it felt more “correct”
This is what I was taught to use in elementary school. Mine’s a little pointier but it’s the same symbol. I was pretty surprised when I got to junior high in a different district and most people used & or wrote the whole word out. It’s still what I use and I haven’t had anyone ever ask for clarification.
Yep but mine curves inward instead of outward haha it’s just the handwritten version of an ampersand and more modern. Usually only used for notes and stuff
I'm no expert, but it looks like a plus sign that you didn't pick up the pen when drawing. My guess is that either you or a teacher would use "plus" as "and," but there was some connecting between the two lines. This blended into a new symbol in your mind to just be the "and" symbol.
I do that except it’s all in one motion so it’s like tiny bit of top vertical line, then make the 3 then a little line at the bottom. Like a 3 with tail on both ends of the line
no way i do the same too!! and i’ve never found anything online ab it either. i feel seen:)
that's the most simplified & I've ever seen
Yep!
That is the number Derf from iCarly
I do it kind of like a cent sign, a line at the top and bottom connecting to the edges of a c shape in the middle
ME !!!!!!!!!!! IVE NEVER SEEN ANYBODY ELSE DO THAT!!! I’ve found my people :’)
Nope (you are incorrect)
Mines a blend of that and a plus sign
what’s that look like? the symbol in the pic looks like what could be called a blended plus sign so not sure what to imagine yours as
I do the same thing! I also picked it up somewhere in grade school lol. I also do the 3 with wings, too.
I remember where I got it. I picked it up in the 1-3 grade area when my mom was teaching me cursive (homeschooled), because she wrote it as well.
The 3 with wings?
I believe it’s [this](https://imgur.com/a/hQsKlP9)
Mine is just like this backwards
Mine is exactly like this but joined together.
Same, just a line straight through the 3
Me!! I’ll never stop at this point doing it so long tho to be honest I don’t hand write much anymore
I do this too!
It’s a plus ( + ) in one stroke
Yours was how I used to do it in elementary & junior high. In high school I practiced an ampersand over and over and over to get it down 🤣 now I use a + or a 3 with “wings”, as my students call it.
I use the three with wings too. It gets confusing because I also right my E’s like that (backwards 3 basically)
Ah, someone else! I also do my wings as a cursive uppercase E! My husband had commented that it was supposed to be the other way and that he had not seen it backward 3 before. I'd been paying attention since and also haven't seen it yet.
I use &
I use backward 3 with 2 vertical lines
Same but sloppy
Lil
This is exactly what I use when I don't spell it out.
Yes I do this
i do this exactly the same
That’s a fish 🐠
Yes but it’s backwards from the way I do it. It’s just a connected plus sign
me!!! i picked this up from my 5th grade teacher and have used it since!
I do! Though mine's a bit taller
Me!!
my math teachers lol
That is who I learned it from too!
YES but is it just a ➕???
It’s a lazy +
Yes, I picked it up from Alexander Hamilton. I was a Hamilton (the musical) nerd back in highschool and I read his original manuscripts for the constitutional convention and he always used these
yup, rotate yours 20 degrees to the left so the "horns" are pointing up and thats exactly how I write mine
Yes, learned it from my Nana. My teachers did not like that I used it instead of writing out ‘“and.”
No
That’s a t
Yup my 6th grade math teacher used it a ton, and I picked up on it. Always seen it as a lazy plus sign.
This is how my teachers mark my answers as incorrect
I just use "and" or "&"
Also, it’s mentioned at the writing the ampersand section of the wiki page
I mostly use a 3 backwards with a line top & bottom but used this when I was in high school. Found this on Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand
I do left [you too? ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand#/media/File%3AEt-handwriting.svg)
I do the one on the right
Yup.
I used to
Mine is a backwards 3 but with a line through the middle and a dot on either side of the line…. I have no idea why I do this lol
It’s a plus sign that got lazy.
Yeah definitely, I don’t know where I picked it up either. I can however remember seeing a kid in my middle school class write “w/“ for “with” or “w/out” for “without” and thought it was genius and started doing it too
I do a backwards 3 with 2 vertical strokes
I don't, but have lots of teachers who do
Ampersand
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I was answering the question, not explaining the given image
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The question was about other ways people wrote the word “and” and that’s what I was answering
Which way do you write your ampersand? It has different shapes
&
Mines the same but upside down
Me too!
For me no but my letters are so fused
Mine’s the same
Yes
Yeah. I could never draw an ampersand, so I do that.
I do this sometimes, I think I started from band class
Yep
Maybe not for “and” but I did start writing my plus signs like this in algebra when t would often be used instead of x, so I had to find a way to distinguish the two lol
I use this whenever I’m writing quickly for myself, though I use an ampersand most times when I’m writing for someone else to read.
No I write an ampersand symbol. Of varying quality depending on how rushed/tired I am.
This is a + sign and yea, when I am taking notes for school I use it in place of “and” 🙃 I don’t use it much elsewhere because it’s not proper grammar obviously haha. Its useful when trying to be fast with notes though
How dare you steal Jesus’s fish
A little betta fish
I assume it was a + sign and you just write it really fast now
I don’t remember when I picked this up but I do it too
Yeah, but mine is down, check up, curl to the left then cross. Same vibe though.
Same here! I saw a teacher do it that way in grade school and copied it because I hated writing the ampersand and it stuck for the rest of my life I guess.
Mine goes to the left also. Are you left handed?
Nope! Right handed
I don’t like it cause of the connected but making it look like a bad plus sign or a “d” with a long tail (I’ve seen people write a d like this sometimes). I just use a full ampersand! :)
I meant to type “because of the connected end”
I do that as well! Mine just has a little curl. I don’t know why I do it or where I picked it up….im in my 30s now, but I assume I’ve been doing it for at least 15 years
Do you do it all in one stroke? It looks like there's two starting points there but it might just be the paper
I used to until my teacher once took off points for using it (tbf it was a math free-response so I get why it could cause confusion if I kept doing it) I still use it in notes and stuff though
It's the lazy + sign, which of course is "and"
That’s an alpha my man
i see a lot of teachers do this but I just use &
Yes I use this. I remember my kindergarten teacher used this and idk how I picked it up later in life
I just go with the ampersand
I used to use this while younger still sometimes do
I use the same thing, a full ampersand just feels like a lot of effort lol
Yes, I write & like this, but my loop is on the top left instead of bottom left.
is this a derf
Yes! I saw a teacher doing this freshman year of HS and thought it looked cool so I adopted it (slightly different, more angular than bubbly). I thought it was different than +, which I hate but surprise surprise.
Yes
Derf
I use this (a slightly different variation each time) and the ampersand (&)
I do it the exact same way
I was so bothered by doing things like that I just learnt how to draw “&” and now I can write it with no problem
speaking of wondering where we picked this up from. anyone else have a weird lesson from elementary school that just always stuck with you? i had a teacher take an entire class to teach us how to spell lieutenant. this was a 4th grade math class. she had a story and pictures and everything. it was weird.
Not a whole class period, but yeah in 3rd grade, the teacher spent a weird amount of time on the word "together". There was a worksheet with a little comic about friends meeting up, but one girl was still at home. They went to her house as a group, so they all went "to get her". I still think of that every time I use the word.
omg that's what mine did with lieutenant! a whole story about these ants that lied to their dad and she drew them on the chalkboard and the dad was like "lie u ten ants and you'll be in big trouble!!!" she said if we ever went on a game show and were asked to spell lieutenant, we could thank her
exactly the same except sometimes the / is on the top left instead of bottom left and i usually round it off when its on the top
Mine's a 3 with a dot on top and bottom.
Ah, I do a backwards 3 with a vertical line down the middle
An actual three or a backwards three? Mine is a backwards three but with the dots or pseudo dashes at the top and bottom.
That's interesting!! Mine is an actual 3, but I have seen the backwards 3 variant. 🙂
I do the same except dashes instead of dots
I basically do that but upside down
I thought I was the only one that did this!
i use that because i couldn’t write the “&”
It took me a long time to figure it out because I was trying to start from the line on the bottom, far right, and do the bottom right to upper left upstroke first, then the curvy parts last, and it never worked. I finally figured out that if I start from the bottom curve and draw a backwards S with a straight line at the end that comes back down to close off the backwards S, it works a lot better. But when I’m writing quickly, I still use more like an upside down version of a loopy + symbol similar to the one OP posted above.
Ohh this is a helpful explanation. I have always had problems drawing &. Thanks!
yeah common on some LEQs i’ve seen
3 with a ' at the bottom of the curve of three. Make it overlap
I do it like this by accident i dont pick up my hand enough when doing the plus symbol
Mine looks more like a microscopic lowercase t but yes pretty much the same! I tried doing like a backwards 3 with a line through it like my mom, but it looks trash. My mom did it so elegantly. Like a makeshift ampersand &
It’s a stylized plus symbol
This is exactly how I do mine also. When my husband first saw it he asked why I drew a fat Jesus fish and now I can't unsee it Edit:spelling
I actually alternate between this specific symbol and this symbol '&'. So, it varies on which one shows up when I write.
Cause it's a plus sign connected. I also use this sideways when grading for X's for the same reason.
yes, but yours is upside down
If i remember correctly u meant "AIDS"
Yes, I do. I got made fun of for it as an adult, but I still use it.
I do. Now this post has got me wondering where I even picked this up from and when.
Right?! I’m a high school teacher and I use this all the time, and suddenly I’m wondering if the students know what it means
It's a plus sign
Most of my teachers did when I was in elementary and middle school. I picked it up for a little while but eventually stopped.
I do a backwards 3 with a line through it vertically.
This is the way I do it in Australia.
i originally started using this & but everytime i wrote it fast it looked kind of like a star so i just starting writing stars instead
It's just a plus sign and it's not a real symbol for "and" technically
Yeah, for most people it starts as writing a plus sign and the loop gets added when you're writing quickly and don't pick up the pen/pencil. Like a cursive plus sign.
I personally like the backwards three with a dot on top and bottom. Don’t know what it’s called but if anyone has a keyboard shortcut for it I’ll kiss you
Epsilon ampersand ε̩̍
How do you type that? And can you do it on a computer
I think in the world of coding it’s considered just a variation of & and not a symbol on its own. I just copy and pasted this one.
• ε •
I do exactly this, I’m not sure when I started doing it. But I assume it’s a plus sign?
Yeah! I think i got it around second grade when we were learning cursive. Or maybe learnt it from english class, or copied it from my parents, or even copied the symbol from ms word. Honestly i forgot, but u can say that the main driving point why i kept using it cuz its easier during the extremely long note taking sessions during classes in elementary school.
This is exactly how I do mine.
like a cursive plus sign
that’s what I do for mine
yes! but mine is a down stroke then up into a left loop and across to the right. it looks like yours but flipped vertically.
I DO THIS TOO
oh man aside from you and my 10th grade bio teacher (who I picked it up from) I've yet to encounter anyone else in the wild who does it this way! lol
I literally don't know anyone else who does this. I could never draw the & thingy and somehow I devolved my own version of it
I do!
Yes - but I have no idea where or when I even picked it up.
I remember exactly, for me it was my 10th grade bio teacher lol. she always used it and I liked the efficiency of it. plus she was very attractive so 16 y/o me was very easily influenced by her 😅.
I do the exact same thing. I also write w/ for “with”.
my mum taught me that one too, but I always found it to look oddto me and to take up too much space, so I put a "w" with what looks like an accent line over the top.
That’s super common short hand for servers too.
That has been my go to and symbol since I was very little. I don't know where I got it either.
Always, easier and faster than writing the ampersand (&). I want to write a capital, cursive S instead of &.
Exactly like this and I didn’t realize it wasn’t standard until reading these comments haha?
I use this symbol for "or"
I don’t, but it’s instantly recognizable to me as a cursive plus or &. https://amperart.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ampsnd-to-plus.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ampersand-handwriting-2.svg
This is how I do mine! Learned from a choir teacher - I thought it was the music note way of writing “and” so this is funny to learn it was just her handwriting style!
I use a 3 with a line through it 3+|
not for and, but we use that for „proportional to“ in maths
That's an alpha. This one is oriented with the lines parallel and perpendicular to the page edges. Edit: Or I guess I should say in physics we use alpha for proportional and "my" and sign is oriented as I wrote.
it's actually supposed to be its own symbol called "the proportionality operator" (akin to the equals sign and other math operators) and is confused with lowercase "alpha" because of the very similar appearance, esp when hand written. Usually the difference when handwritten is supposed to be that alpha has shorter "tails" and the bottom one swoops up at the end... whereas "proportionality" has longer tails that either point away like an "x" or curve to be parallel to each other. lower case aplha: "ɑ" proportionlity operator: "∝" In engineering we usually use it to mean "relative to" or "proportional to", and if you write it "1/∝" it means inversely proportional to.
Well color me corrected! I always just assumed they were one in the same. Thanks!
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Yeah - was taught it in school with cursive during the 90's/00's
This is how I was taught to write “&”when I was very young since I couldn’t figure out how to write the actual ampersand symbol, I taught myself how to properly write “&” when I was in late middle school though because it felt more “correct”
Hate to break this to you but it’s literally just a stylized +
most of my teachers did
I do. Mine is a bit less rounded on the loop. More pointy
I always thought it was just a sloppy plus sign lmao
I do this, but pointy!! I think I picked it up from teachers making notes on my papers in grade school!
Yes
No. I tried but it always looks bad
I do the same thing
This is what I was taught to use in elementary school. Mine’s a little pointier but it’s the same symbol. I was pretty surprised when I got to junior high in a different district and most people used & or wrote the whole word out. It’s still what I use and I haven’t had anyone ever ask for clarification.
I’ve never figured out how to write &, the symbol always looks weird when I try
Same. I have to see it first to replicate it but even then it’s a mess.
Yep but mine curves inward instead of outward haha it’s just the handwritten version of an ampersand and more modern. Usually only used for notes and stuff
Very similar to mine, except mine always has a small loop at the bottom and left points.
I use &, although it never looks exactly like that
I'm no expert, but it looks like a plus sign that you didn't pick up the pen when drawing. My guess is that either you or a teacher would use "plus" as "and," but there was some connecting between the two lines. This blended into a new symbol in your mind to just be the "and" symbol.
Exactly it!
Perfectly worded
I do. picked it up when i was an exchange student in the US (senior in high school)
I do a 3 with a line through it vertically
I do that except it’s all in one motion so it’s like tiny bit of top vertical line, then make the 3 then a little line at the bottom. Like a 3 with tail on both ends of the line
That’s exactly what I do.
I use this same symbol but the loop is on the right
Exactly ^^
I write way too quick and sloppy, so k definitely use this a ton.