English Vocabulary – Abbreviations and acronyms

Welcome!

Do you know what an acronym is? And an abbreviation?

That’s what we are going to learn today!

Abbreviation

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole.

For example:

“mgm” is an abbreviation of the word “management”.

We usually use a lot of abbreviations when naming people:

Titles before names

Let’s have a look at when we use the following abbreviations before someone’s name:

Mrs. – a married adult woman.

Mmes. – more than one adult, married woman.

Mr. – an adult man.

Messrs.  – more than one adult man.

Ms. – adult woman.

Prof. – professor.

Dr. – doctor.

Gen. – general (from the military).

Rep. – representative.

Sen. – senator.

St.  – saint.

Titles after names

Titles after names are also called post-nominal letters or designatory letters. They are letters placed after the name of a person to indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accreditation, office, military decoration, or honour, or is a member of a religious institute. Let’s check out some common ones:

Sr. – senior.

Jr. – junior.

Ph.D. – doctorate.

M.D. – medical doctor.

B.A. – this means the person has a bachelor’s degree.

M.A. – this means the person has a masters degree.

D.D.S. – doctor of dental surgery.

Acronym

An acronym is a type of abbreviation. It is a word formed from the first letters of each one of the words in a phrase.

For example: 

“USA is an acronym of United States of America”

Acronyms and abbreviations on the internet

A lot of you probably use the internet to talk with friends and chat with people in your country, right? That means you are also using a lot of acronyms and abbreviations! Like “LOL”, which means “Laugh Out Loud”, this is why we use it when something is funny.

But can you tell us what the following acronyms mean?

TTYL

FTW

TWVM

OH

Let us know their meaning in the comments’ section!