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Abbreviations are a way to shorten the writing of certain terms or expressions, and help us to write less. Surely you have noticed that there are words that are abbreviated using the first letters of the same, others instead are written abbreviated using the initial and other letters that make up the word, and others instead only with the initial... but then, is there a rule to form an abbreviation ?

What are the abbreviations?

According to the dictionary of the Royal Academy, an abbreviation is a "graphic representation of a word or a group of words, obtained through an abbreviation process in which final or central letters are deleted, generally closed with a point and rarely with a slash"

Any word can be abbreviated; For this reason, a distinction is made between personal abbreviations (those that any speaker can generate for their personal use in private writing) and conventional abbreviations, which are those recognized and commonly used by users of a language.

Abbreviation and abbreviation, is it the same?

We usually use the words "abbreviation" and "abbreviation" as synonyms, but we are going to see that in reality they are not. We have already seen the definition of the first, now we will see what the dictionary tells us about the second:

So far it seems that they are synonyms, right? But in reality, any word or representation formed by abbreviation is, also abbreviations, acronyms and shortenings are.

Rules for forming an abbreviation

Let's see the rules present in the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of doubts of the Royal Academy:

Restrictions

• The abbreviation cannot appear anywhere in the text (we turn to theand we found the store)
• Treatment abbreviations are used only before the proper name (Martínez, Dr. Hernández)
• An amount should not be written in letters followed by the abbreviation of the quantified concept (twenty ctsinstead of twenty cents)

how they are formed

• Truncation: that is, deleting the last syllables or letters of a word (code by code). In this case the abbreviation must never end in a vowel. When it comes to abbreviating expressions with a fixed formula, all the words that make it up are abbreviated, including prepositions, conjunctions and articles, reducing them to the initial letter (RIP, may he rest in peace).
• Contraction: eliminating central letters and leaving only the most significant ones (or dept. by department).

Gender

If the masculine abbreviation ends in “o”, the feminine is formed by replacing the “o” with “a” (Lcdo. for Licenciado, Lcda. for Licenciada). If the masculine ends in a consonant, a flown "a" is added or not (Dr. for doctor, Dra. or Dr.ª for doctora). In this case, when the masculine ends in a consonant, the following must be taken into account:

• If the abbreviation is formed by truncation, the feminine is formed by adding a flown «a» (for professor, Prof.ª for professor). It is very common in American countries that the abbreviation is written with the "a" not flown (Profa.). Although both options are valid, the use of the flown «a» is recommended.
• When the abbreviation is formed by contraction, the feminine can be formed with the "a" flown or not flown (or Dr.ª for doctora)

There are abbreviations that can be used for both feminine and masculine (left for left or left)

Plural

• When the abbreviation is formed by truncation, an "s" is added (pages by pages)
• If the abbreviation is made up of a single letter, for the plural it is doubled (USA for United States)
• When the abbreviation is formed by contraction, the general rules of plural formation apply, adding "s" or "es" depending on the case (by departments; admons. by administrations) You (Ud.) and You (Uds.) are an exception to this rule.

Orthography

• The abbreviations keep the accent mark in case they include the accented vowel (page by page)
• In general, they are written with uppercase or lowercase letters as appropriate to the word or abbreviated expression.
• Period is always written after an abbreviation. In the case of abbreviations with flown letters, the point is placed in front of them (ª). In some cases the dot is replaced with a slash (c/ for street; c/c for current account)

ATTENTION 👉 the abbreviations of the units of measure (kg, m, cm) are symbols and not abbreviations, that's why they are written without a period.