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Abbreviation

An abbreviation is the written representation of one or more words by removing some of its letters, for example:

• instead of sir.
• or avda. instead of avenue.
• USAinstead of United States of America (see Encyclopedia: USA).
• AR instead of Royal Highness.
• SM as Your Majesty.

Types

There are two types of abbreviations: conventional, which are in common use among most speakers (or in certain fields), and personal, which each invents according to their tastes or the needs of what they write. The former are more or less standardized (there may be variants) and the latter are not. Among the conventional ones we can distinguish those of general use, used by all speakers of a language, and those specific to a field of knowledge or activity, such as those used in encyclopedias, for example.

Rules

In the writing of those of general use there are certain norms fixed by custom:

• A periodis written after the abbreviation. On the other hand, the symbols that are representations, by convention, do not have a period, do not admit changes by beginning the sentence (uppercase) or plural. Thus in the symbols of:
  • the chemical elements(Au, C, Sn).
  • the SIunits of measure (g, m, s).
  • the cardinal points(N, SW).
• Nor should abbreviations be confused with abbreviationsor acronyms.
• The plural of the abbreviations can be made by doubling the letters or adding -s or -es:
  • Royal Highness (HR); Royal Highnesses (AA. RR.).
  • Doctor (Dr.); doctors (Drs.).
• You can't always substitute a word for its abbreviation. For example:
  • You can write Pérezand Mr. Judge, but not « A Mrs. came home ».
  • It is also written 13, but not « It is the last page. ».
  • Another case is to write 300 kminstead of « three hundred km ».
• In general, abbreviations are used where justified, to replace a very repeated structure in the textor in similar texts, and always keeping a certain coherence with the rest of the writing.
• Also keep in mind that if an abbreviation is formed from the first letters of a word, these normally do not form a complete syllable, but the first consonants of the following syllable are added: example → eg, page → page., etc → etc.

Common abbreviations

Some of the more common abbreviations are:

• Academy: Acad.
• Adjective: adj.
• Agriculture: Agr.
• Buenos Aires: Buenos Aires.
• General: Gen.
• Grammar: Gram.