How to Make a Mouth in an Emoticon

Emoticons are a great way to convey feelings when communicating by text messages, instant messages or email. However, there is more to it than just this: :-). There are many other symbols, letters and numbers that can be used for various types of mouths.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Examine the shapes of all the letters on your keyboard and imagine what type of mouth they would make. Emoticons are read from the left to the right, with the eyes--or the top--being on the left.
2. Remember that mouths can have things sticking out of them, like teeth and tongues. The letter P is often used as a mouth with a tongue hanging out the side of it, while the letter B can be a buck-toothed mouth. Be creative and find other letters that have shapes to which a mouth can contort.
3. Look at the other keys on your keyboard--the numbers and symbols. Many of these can be used as mouths, and not just the common parentheses symbols for smiley and sad faces. The asterisk key is often used to represent puckering lips. There are many other symbols and numbers that can be used as mouths with a little imagination.
4. Combine more than one symbol, letter or number to create a mouth. Common uses of this practice are combining both parentheses symbols to create a big mouth or combining the bracket symbols to create an open-mouthed kiss: :-{}.

Tips & Warnings

• Mouth symbols can work in conjunction with various types of symbols for eyes to help convey emotion, such as the number 8 for wide eyes or the semicolon for a wink.