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.