I'm balling. vs. I'm bawling. (2025)

I watched a video on YT in which a guy bought a car for his poor sister. Someone wrote down in the comment section:

I’m BALLING; this was such a beautiful moment and really inspires me to work my ass off to provide for my family too. This is what it’s all about! Love it!

What does 'to ball' mean?

More like "I'm crying my eyes out".
Katerina L is weeping because she has been so moved by the story.

....
Cross-posted

Another typo?

zaffy said:

Another typo?

View attachment 32867

Click to expand...

There are many here, I'm afraid.

zaffy said:

Another typo?

Click to expand...

Yes. As are you're and sisters....

________
More cross-posting!

Barque said:

Or possibly they think bawl is spelt ball.

Click to expand...

Yes....

And is "tear up" another synonym for crying?

zaffy said:

And is "tear up" another synonym for crying?

View attachment 32868

Click to expand...

Yes. And tear in this case rhymes with hear.

-Stop crying!
-Stop bawling!
-Stop tearing up!

Can I use all them in the imperative mood?

Roxxxannne said:

Yes, grammatically speaking, but 'tearing up' doesn't describe the same thing as 'crying.' 'Tearing up' is when your eyes fill with tears without your making the sounds that are associated with crying or weeping. You can't tell whether someone is tearing up unless you look at them.

Click to expand...

Roxxxannne is right. I was in too much of a hurry with my previous post! My apologies.

zaffy said:

bawl vs. ball
Just looked it up and indeed the pronunciation is the same Didn't know that verb. Learning all the time

Click to expand...

There is actually a previous thread on the mistaken use of "balling" to mean "bawling" which you might find interesting:
balling [ bawling ] my eyes out

Yeah, looks like natives have indeed a problem with this word. Another typo found. What might be the reason? Is it a matter of the level of education of those people?

zaffy said:

Yeah, looks like natives have indeed a problem with this word. Another typo found. What might be the reason? Is it a matter of the level of education of those people?

View attachment 32871

Click to expand...

Perhaps, plus the confusing plethora of homophones in the English language.

Also be aware that balling is a slang term with a different meaning. You might see that, too.

“Ballin'” is a term often heard as slang, especially in the black community. It means to live with affluence, to have wealth. It is sometimes spelled and pronounced with a “g,” and sometimes not. It's thought to have originated from the term “having a ball.”Sep 6, 2018​

kentix said:

Don't ever take casual chat on internet sites as a lesson in grammar and spelling. Many people don't know how to spell or write standard English well and others who do don't bother in this kind of context. Expect it to be more wrong than right.

Click to expand...

And English spelling is really quite hard, to be fair.