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For the last few years the internet has abounded with expressions ending in a kinda of "though-tag" in final position, especially in comments to GIFs and the like, such as the following:

That tongue at the end tho. (imgur)

That victory dance though. (imgur)

I'd very much appreciate it if somebody, problably a native speaker, could add an explanation with some synonyms.

----------EDIT-----------------------

The pics in imgur are no longer titled as they were when this post was created.

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In standard usage, sentence-final "though" (optionally preceded by a comma) is used where the current sentence or phrase qualifies or limits what was said earlier. E.g., it might point out a flaw or drawback, or conversely a silver lining or mitigating circumstance.

  • He's handsome. Kinda dumb though.
  • It's beautiful. Real expensive though.
  • Forrest Gump wasn't very smart, but he was honest though.

This is slightly informal, more common in speech than in writing. Note that it cannot be substituted with "although" in this context.

The usage you noted, which does not involve any prior sentence and is often written with "dat" and "tho" or even "doe", seems to be a modern Internet meme usage.

The website Know Your Meme discusses the "dat X tho" meme and credits one particular viral Vine from 2013 for popularizing it. See the link, the dialog is:

  • [Purse snatcher grabs a girl's purse and runs off with it]
  • "Help, my purse!"
  • "I'll save you!"
  • [Would-be savior performs a useless stunt instead of helping to catch the thief] "Woo hoo!"
  • "He's already gone."
  • "Yeah but that backflip tho."

The fact that he skillfully executed a backflip is humorously presented as a mitigating circumstance for criticism that he failed to act to stop the crime.

Urban Dictionary has an entry for "dat ass doe" (i.e., "that ass though"), expressing the thought that if a girl has a pleasing posterior it mitigates the fact that her face may not be so pretty or her intellect substandard. In other words, there is an implied and unspoken earlier phrase.

However in practice, I think "tho" is sometimes simply added gratuitously to the end of a "dat" phrase and then its usage morphs to be just an emphatic particle. Perhaps like sentence-final Canadian "eh?", except without the rising tone.

Sorry for the above example, but Urban Dictionary didn't have another less sexist "dat" phrase to cite. Know Your Meme mentions that "dat ass" itself probably originated on the 4chan website circa 2009.

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  • Yet, what about the following one, which is a title itself, without previous discussion whatsoever? imgur.com/gallery/ofrJGLT I've even heard this 'particle' in a positive sense without a previous context, so after 5 minutes playing quietly videogames, somebody all of a sudden claims "the (pc) game is quite good, though".
    – GJC
    Mar 15, 2016 at 13:52
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    I addressed this above: However in practice, I think "tho" is sometimes simply added gratuitously to the end of a "dat" phrase and then its usage morphs to be just an emphatic particle. Mar 15, 2016 at 13:57
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The use of "though" at the end of the sentence can differ. It can carry the meaning of contradiction (~"however"). From bbc.co.uk:

We use though and however when we want to add a comment that seems to contradict or contrasts with what has already been said.

"I’m sorry, I can’t stay for lunch. I’ll have a coffee, though".

However, in your example, the usage does not carry any significant connotation, it is a sort of slang usage that might put some extra emotional emphasis on the subject. The definition from Urban Dictionary is more to the point:

To add more unecessary words to a sentence....though is not really used for much when coming at the end of an already complete sentence.

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  • I disagree that it's unnecessary. In your example, if you said "I’m sorry, I can’t stay for lunch. I’ll have a coffee." then the listener might be slightly confused for a moment, thinking, "Hang on, that seems to contradict what they said - they can't stay, but they're going to have a coffee? Are they staying or going?". Adding "though" tells the listener, sort of, "I know that i just said i can't have lunch, but i AM going to have a coffee, which doesn't count as lunch". It acknowledges the contradiction and tells the listener that you're not just confused and contradicting yourself. Mar 15, 2016 at 8:53
  • @MaxWilliams Of course it is not unnecessary in case of regular usage (contradiction). It is however fairly redundant in the OP's example as it is slang usage.
    – Vilmar
    Mar 15, 2016 at 8:55
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    Oh hang on, you were saying it was unnecessary in the poster's example - i beg your pardon. I'll leave my comment anyway as it might help explain things a bit. Mar 15, 2016 at 8:55
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It's not clear what you're asking, but using "though" at the end of a sentence (like "however"), says that the sentence is in contrast to something said previously. Eg

"It looks sunny at the moment. The weather man said it might rain, though."

Which is like saying

"It looks sunny at the moment. On the other hand, the weather man said it might rain."

This page from the BBC talks about using "though" at the end of a sentence: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv136.shtml

It would normally have a comma before it, to highlight that it's a separate part of the sentence.

EDIT: to address the examples. The first one is better, I think:

"That tongue at the end though."

Using "though" says that this sentence is in contradiction to something said earlier. Since there was nothing before it, then its usage implies a previous statement. This imaginary statement must be left to the reader's imagination, but one would tend to assume that it's opposite or just different to the tongue in some way. So, if the tongue is very interesting for some reason, using "though" implies that the rest of whatever is being discussed is not interesting. It becomes part of an larger implied communication which when expanded, might say "This video is boring but the tongue at the end is very interesting".

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'Though' at the end indicates a counter argument/qualification to the preceding comment.

Nice house. Shame about the neighbourhood though.
(i.e. It's a nice house except for the fact that/although it's in the 'wrong' neighbourhood.

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