Abbreviations and Acronyms in English Speaking

Abbreviations are short forms of words or phrases that are widely used.

Acronym is a short form (one word) of a phrase consisting of first letters of each word in the phrase.

Commonly used abbreviations are:

E.g. is used in place of ‘for example’. It is used for giving one or more examples.  

•             There are many things you can buy from here e.g. headphones, speakers, music system for your car etc. 

cf. is used in place of ‘compare’. It is an abbreviation for latin word ‘confer’. It is used for referring to another given book, document or statement.  Sometimes it is used in place of ‘see’. 

i.e. is used in place of ‘that is’ in written language before giving an explanation about something. 

•             We need to catch the afternoon’s bus i.e. we need to have lunch and finish our shopping in two hours. 

viz. is used in written English when we want to say something in detail or be exact about what we’re saying.

•             We both are going to Dharamshala viz. we will stay there and practice Buddhism while running a small business.  

Etc is used in place of ‘et cetera’. In order to avoid long list of something we use it. 

•             There are cupcakes, muffins, chocolate cookies etc. in her bakery. 

RSVP is written at the end of invitations to mean ‘please respond’. When you receive invitation with RSVP written you must reply saying you accept or decline the invitation. You can also put name with the phone number and address. 

•             RSVP 2475947 (ph no.) by Dec 10 2013

ASAP stands for ‘as soon as possible’. 

•             Please come ASAP.

ETA stands for ‘estimated time arrival’. The time when someone is expected to arrive. 

•             What is your flight’s ETA? 

P.S. is used at the end of letters or mail to add extra information. It stands for ‘post script’.

•             With lots of love, Rajat. P.S. Pay my regards to your parents

DIY stands for ‘do it yourself’. The activity of doing things like repairing, decorating, making something all by yourself without the help of paid professionals. 

•             It’s a DIY game. 

PhD stands for ‘doctor of philosophy’. It is the highest university degree.

•             She has a PhD in Semiotics.

•             He is a PhD in English Language. 

A.D. (or AD) stands for ‘anno domini’. It is used in Christian calendar to refer to a year after Jesus Christ was born.

•             In 1400 AD or in AD 1400

•             In tenth century AD. 

B.C. (or BC) stands for ‘before Christ’. . It is used in Christian calendar to refer to a year before Jesus Christ was born. 

•             The war took place in 98 BC.

A.M. is used to refer to a time between twelve at night and twelve at noon. 

•             The baby was born at two a.m.

P.M. is used to refer to a time between twelve at noon and twelve at night. 

•             The movie is at seven p.m.

Abbreviations in English

Abbreviations are short forms of regular words, like ‘can’t’ for ‘cannot’ and ‘gotta’ for ‘got to’. They are found mostly in informal texts or stories and very rarely in formal texts, however in recent times the process of abbreviating has become very popular thanks to the advent of the SMS language in instant messaging and texting. 

We unintentionally use abbreviations while speaking, either in a rush to get the words out or simply because of our accent or dialect. It is from here that abbreviations were born and were included into written English as well. 

The general rule of using abbreviations is to use a period (.) or an apostrophe (‘) to indicate where the word has been shortened or where the two words have been combined for example - ‘cause is an abbreviation of ‘because’ and Mr. is an abbreviation of ‘mister’ while don’t is an abbreviation of ‘do not’.

Abbreviations are used in texts to save time and space or to give an impression of the speech used by someone. However we must remember that most abbreviations are informal and casual in nature and should not be used in formal texts like reports or theses unless you wish to convey something by using an abbreviation.  

In the case of SMS language, there is no limit to the amount and types of abbreviations that are being invented by people all over the world every day. Some of the common ones are R for our/are, U for you etc. however these abbreviations are not acceptable at all in any written text using the English language.

Learn about the different abbreviations and the difference between them and acronyms before you attempt to use them yourselves. Avail yourself of the different English Quizzes and worksheets offered on the site and learn all about abbreviations today.

Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of frequency tell us how often something happens. Following is a list of commonly used adverbs:

• Always
• Never
• Normally
• Frequently
• Usually
• Often
• Rarely
• Seldom
• Sometimes
• Occasionally
• Regularly
• Generally
• A lot

We usually put the adverbs in the middle of the sentence, between the verb and the subject:

• We never drive on highways.
• They generally get up late on weekends.
• I rarely drink carbonated drinks.

We can put some adverbs at the end or beginning of the sentences to make it stronger:

• We don’t go out often.
• Often we don’t go out.

We use adverb ‘a lot’ at the end of the sentence to mean frequently.

• We love going to theatre a lot.
• We go for shopping a lot at the weekend.

There are expressions like ‘every now and again/then’, ‘once in a while’ and ‘from time to time’ which we can use to say ‘how often’ we do something. Note that these adverb can be used only in the beginning or at the end of the sentences. 

• I go to the parlour once in a while.
• Every now and again/then I go for grocery shopping.
• From time to time I call up my daughter.
• Sometimes I do take my kids to the museums.

 We use ‘how often’ and ‘ever’ in questions. We use ‘how often’ at the beginning of the question and ‘ever’ before the verb.

• How often do you exercise?
• How often have you been to Mumbai?
• Do you ever cook at home on weekends?
• Have you ever been to north-east?

In order to say ‘how often’ something happens, you add ‘several’ or ‘many’ followed by times and time period. If want to specify the number of times then you add the number (once if it is one or twice if it two times) followed by ‘a’ and time period.

• I go Jaipur many times a year.
• I visit my dad once a month.
• I visit temple several times a year.
• I do yoga twice a week.

We use ‘every’ in the following way:

·         I travel to Chennai every month.

·         I eat non-vegetarian every Wednesday. 

We can use ‘s’ at the end of the day to mean ‘every Tuesday’. For example:

• I drink on Saturdays.
• I cook on Sundays.

Consider other adverbs in the sentences to understand their usage.

• He visits his parents quite frequently. (frequently means often)
• Normally, we are not out till late at night.
• Now that I have a job, I seldom get a chance to exercise. (seldom means almost never)
• It’s important to do yoga regularly. Otherwise it makes no sense. (regularly means often)
• He always forgets the way to my home.
• Occasionally, I see her travelling in metro. (occasionally means sometimes and not often)
• She usually wears jeans to the college.

Conjunctions and its uses in English

In English language, the conjunctions functions as a “connector”. Thus it is defined as the part of speech that connects words, clauses, phrases and sentences to complete their meaning.

Conjunctions are divided into three categories Coordinating, Subordinating and Correlative.

1) Coordinating Conjunctions: These conjunctions join two statements of equal importance. 

The seven common coordinating conjunctions are: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so and can be memorized in their abbreviated form as F.A.N.B.O.Y.S (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

2) Subordinating Conjunctions: These conjunctions join two sentences, one of which depends on other for its complete meaning. They are helpful in writing paragraphs.

The most common examples of subordinating conjunctions are although, as, because, before, if, since, so, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, whenever, whereas, while etc.

3) Correlative Conjunctions: These are the pair of conjunctions used to join two syntactic equivalent statements, to complete their meanings.

The examples of correlative conjunctions are mentioned below.

• either , or

• neither, nor

• whether, or

• not only, but

• just as, so

• both, and

Prepositions and its uses in English

The word that shows the relation of nouns and pronouns with other part of a sentence is called as “Preposition”.

Preposition is divided in three categories- Simple preposition, Compound Preposition and Phrase preposition.

A) Simple Preposition: The words like at, in, on, far, near, to from etc. fall under this category. Based          on the usage simple preposition can be subcategorised to

     Ø  Preposition of time

     Ø  Preposition of place

     Ø  Preposition of direction 

1) Prepositionof Time: It shows time.

Examples: at, in on, after, before etc.

2) Prepositionof Place: It shows the place where something or somebody is.

Examples: on, at, in, under, above, beside etc.

3) Prepositionof Direction: It is used to give directions.

Examples: across, through, next to , between, near , etc.

B) Compound & Phrase Preposition: These are the group of words which are used as one preposition.

Examples:  in between, Because of, In front of, on behalf of, In the mid­dle of, According to, By means of, In addi­tion to ‚in spite of, instead of etc. 

Placement of Preposition in a sentence:
In a sentence, the prepositions usually come before the noun. 

Words used without Preposition:
The prepositions are not used before the words like next, last this, one, every, each, some, any, all, today, tomorrow etc.

For example

I will see you next Monday                    : Correct

I will see you on next Monday               : Incorrect.

Download a huge preposition list from www.englishleap.com and use it to make your English impressive.