Abbreviations

Abbreviations are nice ways of writing things easier. But did you know that there are at least two different types? You can use abbreviations to make words shorter but there are rules when choosing which one to use. The first type of abbreviation is an acronym, and the second one is initialism.

An acronym is a type of word shortening like 'ltr' for 'later', or 'tmr' for 'tomorrow'. When you read it, you read the full word as it should be pronounced. The only thing different is the way you write it. The best thing about this shortening is that there are no rules. New ones can be made up and people will understand what you mean. It's great for taking notes in the classroom or when you need to write something quickly. Most acronyms are just the long words without any vowels. You can also replace some letters such as o,g,u,r,t, for oh, ge,you,are,tea.

Here are some examples:
ok for okay
hw for homework
Jan for January
Pokemon for Pocket Monsters

You may have noticed that you can make an acronym for two words to be combined into one. Japanese is quite famous for having acronyms in daily conversation to shorten words. Here are some examples, do you know any more?

Macdo = Mcdonalds
persocom = personal computer
cosplay = costume play
karaoke = empty(bare from karate) orchestra
staba = starbucks

Initialisms come from the root word of initial. Your initials are the first letter of your name. When writing initialisms, the rule is it has to be written with the first letter of each word that you want to shorten. When spoken, each letter has to be pronounced. Adding articles or prepositions are your choice, but sometimes they are added to help make the abbreviation easier to remember. Here are some initialisms:

RCMP = royal Canadian mounted police
ttyl = talk to you later
ayce = all you can eat
bogo = buy one get one

I would like to say rules are rules but they have to be broken. As abbreviations are becoming more common, people are starting to say initialisms out loud. Some started saying them as a joke but it soon caught on to being acceptable and some people don't event know what it stands for. Here are a list of abbreviations that started out as initialisms but turned into acronyms:

scuba = self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
aids = acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
laser = light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
lol = laugh out loud
pin = personal identification number

 Plz try and mk ur own abbreviations 2 help urself write notes down faster. It can save you 1-2sec when writing for your PhD or term essay. KY would like 2 play some LOL after this but first, it's time to slp. cya l8r!