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15 acronyms in English that every professional needs to understand

Rosangela Souza, founder and managing partner of Companhia de Idiomas, explains the meanings of 15 very common abbreviations in English text messages

English speakers love acronyms - even more so in the business world, which often requires speed and practicality in everyday conversations.

Today we are going to learn or remember some abbreviations that are often used in text messages, a resource increasingly used in professional life.

Some people say that writing with acronyms "kills" the language as we are neglecting etymology and rules. But what is a language if not the means we use to communicate with as many people as possible? Language is part of a living culture, which adapts to the new.

Knowing the abbreviations allows you to understand what the other means, and you are free to use them whenever (and if) you want. Here is a table with 15 very common acronyms in English:

Acronym	meaning in english	meaning in portuguese
BRB	Be right back	I will be back in a moment
BTW	By the way	by the way
FYI	For your information	To your knowledge
GTG	Got to go	Need to go
IDK	I don?t know	I do not know
JK	Just kidding/ Joking	I'm just kidding
LMAO	Laughing my a** off	Laughing out loud
LMK	Let me know	Me avise / me count
LOL	Laughing out loud	Laughing loudly
OMG	Oh my God	Oh my God
E.G	No problem	No problem
RU...?	Are you??	You're...? / You are...?
THX/ TX	Thanks	Thank you
TTYL	Talk to you later	Talk to you later
XO	Hugs and Kisses	Hugs and kisses

The table was made based on information extracted from the Netlingo and Voxy websites .

English business acronyms and abbreviations

Acronyms are words made up of the union of elements of two or more words, or an acronym that is pronounced as a word, for example, “FIFA”, which stands for International Federation of Football Association On the other hand, abbreviations are reduced representations of words to suppress letters, for example, “admón.”, which means administration.

So that you do not feel lost if you see or hear acronyms and abbreviations in English, we share the following list of the most used in business:

• Acct (Account)
• Ad(Advertisement)
• AKA(Also known as)
• Approx(Approximately)
• ASAP(As soon
  as possible)
• B2B(Business to business)
• B2C(business to consumer)
• BS (Balance sheets)
• BTW (By the way)
• CEO_
  _
• CFO(Chief
  financial officer)
• CIO (Chief
  investment officer/chief information officer)
• CMO(chief
  marketing officer)
• COO(Chief
  operating officer)
• CR (Conversion rate)
• CTO(Chief Technology Officer)
• DOB(Date of Birth)
• DIY_
  _
• EPS(earnings
  per share)
• ERP(Enterprise
  resource planning)
• ESOP(Employee Stock Ownership Plan)
• ESL(English
  as a Second Language)
• ESP(Email service provider)
• ESP(English
  for Special Purposes)
• FAQ(Frequently
  asked questions)
• FYI(For your information)
• FTE(Full-time
  employee)
• HTML(Hypertext
  mark-up language)
• HR (Human Resources)
• IMO(In my opinion)
• IPO(Initial Public Offering)
• ISP (Internet Service Provider)
• KPIs(Key performance indicators)
• NDA(Non-disclosure agreement)
• NOI(Net
  operating income)
• NRN(No reply necessary)
• N/A(Not Applicable)
• OTC(Over-the
  -counter)
• PM (Project
  manager)
• PR_
• PTE(Part-time employee)
• PTO(Please turn over)
• R
  &D(Research
  and development)
• RH(His/Her
  Royal Highness)
• RFP(Request for proposal)
• ROI(Return on investment)
• RRP(Recommended retail price)
• SEO(Search engine optimization)
• SLA(Service Level Agreement)
• TBD(To be decided)
• TGIF(Thank god
  it's Friday).
• TOS (Terms of Service)
• VAT(Value
  added tax)
• VPN(Virtual
  private network)