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Abbreviations

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS IN ENGLISH

Abbreviations and acronyms are abbreviations of letters and syllables widely used in everyday speech, more often written. Many people think that they are one and the same, but they are not. There are certain differences between them, albeit not so profound. Let's look at the options for such abbreviations.

Letter abbreviations

• When we abbreviate a word or phrase, we often do so using initial letters. And spell the acronym.

DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid / DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid

30p - thirty pence / 30 pence

FBA - Federal Bureau of Investigation / FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation

• It often happens that a letter abbreviation of a word is used in written speech, although in oral speech it is always pronounced in full.

BA - Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Arts (natural sciences)

Est. - established / founded

Goods Ltd. - Goods Limited / Goods Ltd. (Limited - form of ownership of the company)

Ms. - Missis / Mrs (appeal to a married woman)

Oz - ounces / ounces (measure of weight)

St. - Street / st. - the outside

10 km - 10 kilometers / 10 km - 10 kilometers

Abbreviations from syllables

Often abbreviations are formed by omitting one or more syllables from a word. Sometimes they are simply called abbreviations, because we leave the beginning of the word and "abbreviate" the rest. Here are examples of such abbreviations:

Ad, advert - advertisement / Announcement, advertisement, announcement

Decaf - decaffeinated / decaffeinated

Exam - examination / exam

Memo - memorandum / memorandum (diplomatic document)

Photo _

Abbreviations of personal names

Abbreviations very often refer to personal names. As a rule, in an informal setting, we call loved ones precisely by abbreviated names, which are also called diminutives.

Tom - Thomas / Tom - Thomas

Fred - Frederick / Fred - Frederick

Pam - Pamela / Pam - Pamela

Sue - Susan / Sue - Susan

Initials

An initial is the letter that begins a word or name. Initials are very often used to denote the names of countries and organizations:

UAE - United Arab Emirates / UAE - United Arab Emirates

NBA - National Basketball Association / NBA - National Basketball Association

• Initials are also often substituted for people's names to save space on the letter, for example when filling out personal data and various reporting forms. When we designate our personal data with initials, this is considered a more formal address:

1. Adams, lawyer/ D. Adams, lawyer (formal address)

John Adams, lawyer / John Adams, lawyer (less formal)

• In countries where second (and more) middle names are in use, they are often replaced by initials. This is also more often used in formal address. Very common in American English.

Robert B. Davidson / Robert B. Davidson

• Sometimes initials also denote a person's place in the family hierarchy or in relation to another well-known relative.

John Downey Jr. / John Downey Jr.

Acronyms

Acronyms are words that are formed from the first letters of other words and are pronounced together rather than spelled out. Examples of such acronyms:

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization / NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Scuba - self-contained underwater breathing apparatus / self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

Radar - radio detection and ranging

SATs - standard attainment tests / standard achievement tests (tests taken by schoolchildren in the UK)

• Relatively new acronyms are usually capitalized:

Mary's got her SATs next month. And she's really nervous. / Mary is taking her final tests next month. And she's very nervous.

• If the abbreviation has existed for a long time and is fully entrenched in the language, as a rule, it is written in lowercase letters (or one capital letter if it is at the beginning of a sentence):

The ship's radar had been destroyed in the storm. / The ship's radar was broken during a storm.

Radar was one of the most important inventions of the twentieth century. / Radar was one of the most important inventions of the twentieth century.

We went to scuba-diving in Egypt last summer. / We went diving in Egypt last summer.

• Some acronyms are pronounced as combinations of individual letters and syllables.

She sent me a jpeg file with a photo. (joint photographic experts' group —/ˈdʒeɪpeg/) / She sent me a jpeg photo file. (jpeg is a special compressed photo format, pronounced "jipeg")

It is my favorite sitcom. / This is my favorite sitcom (situation comedy).

• Some acronyms have taken root in the language so much that we use them without thinking as independent words. We use in the plural, elephant and conjugate.

Are the photos on your notebook jpegs or bitmaps? / Are the photos in your laptop jpegs or bitmaps?

NATO's foreign policy has been criticized worldwide recently. / NATO's foreign policy has recently been criticized all over the world.