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How to use abbreviations correctly?

What is the difference between an abbreviation and an abbreviation?

The word abbreviation is translated into Russian from Italian as 'abbreviation' (abbreviatura, from Latin brevis 'short'), from the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century this word was used in its original, etymological meaning, as evidenced, for example, by the interpretation of this word in Dictionary of Florenty Pavlenkov: abbreviation - 'abbreviation in writing and printing' (Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. 1907). However, today only nouns formed from truncated segments of words (Glavbukh, Glavkom, Permanent Representative, Rospechat), from the initial sounds of several words (MIA, ITAR-TASS, MKAD) or from the names of their initial letters (FSB, MVD, RSL) are called abbreviations.

How are words shortened?

There are such ways of abbreviating words: abbreviation, graphic abbreviation and word truncation.

Abbreviation is the addition of two or more words and their subsequent reduction: unified + state + exam = USE; chief + accountant = chief accountant. The words obtained as a result of abbreviation are called abbreviations or compound words.

Graphic abbreviation is a way of writing words briefly. It is used to save time that must be spent writing and space on the sheet. With graphic abbreviation, letters or syllables are omitted from the word (the omission is indicated by a dot, dash or slash). The word is written briefly, but pronounced in full: kg - kilogram; pr-in - production; And. about. - acting; billion - billion; Rostov n / a - Rostov-on-Don.

Truncation is the formation of a new word by discarding the final part of the original word. Truncated words are often used in colloquial speech: specialist - specialist, fan - fan, teacher - teacher.

How are abbreviations formed?

There are the following types of abbreviations according to the method of formation:

• abbreviations formed from the initial letters of each word (initial abbreviations): USE - Unified State Examination; RZD - Russian Railways; OSAGO - compulsory motor third party liability insurance.
• abbreviations formed from a combination of the initial parts of words: commander in chief, Ministry of Health;
• abbreviations of a mixed type, consisting of both the initial parts of words and initial letters: social security, KamAZ, GLONASS;
• abbreviations consisting of a combination of the initial part of the word with the whole word: office equipment, Sberbank, Rospechat; head of the department, platoon commander, manager, Ministry of Education and Science;
• abbreviations consisting of a combination of the beginning of the first word with the beginning and end of the second, or only with the end of the second: moped (motorcycle-bike), destroyer (destroyer).

How are the abbreviations pronounced?

Difficulties arise with the pronunciation of initial abbreviations (formed from the initial letters of each word). Such abbreviations can be read by letter names, by syllables, as well as in a mixed way.

• If the initial abbreviation includes only letters denoting consonant sounds, then such an abbreviation is read by the names of its constituent letters: USSR[es-es-es-er], NTV [en-te-ve], ROC [er-pe-tse ].
• If the abbreviation contains letters denoting vowel sounds, then such abbreviations can be read “by syllables”, like ordinary words: MFA[mid], university [university], GUM [gum], Moscow Art Theater [mkhat], EGE [je-ge ], MAPRYAL [ma-pr'al]. However, if the vowel in the abbreviation is final or initial, then the abbreviation is usually read by the names of the letters: MGU [em-ge-u], MDA [em-de-a], UTP [u-te-pe], EVM [e-ve -em], ABS [a-be-es]. But: media [media], SKA [ska].
• Some abbreviations are read partly “by syllables”, partly by the names of the letters: traffic police[gi-be-de-de].
• When pronouncing a number of abbreviations, colloquial names of letters are used: [ne] instead of [en], [se] instead of [es], [fe] instead of [ef], etc.: SNO[es-ne-o], USA [se -she-a], FBI [fe-be-er]. Moreover, instead of the name of the letter [el], in abbreviations they always pronounce [el]: ZhZL [zhe-ze-el], NHL [en-ha-el], VLKSM [ve-el-ka-es-em].

How to pronounce Germany and USA?

Initially, the abbreviation of the Federal Republic of Germany was read by the names of the letters: [ef-er-ge]. But since the letter Ф in colloquial speech is pronounced as [fe], which is explained by the economy of speech means, in particular articulation laws (and our “linguistic laziness”, as K. S. Gorbachevich believes), today the pronunciation of the FRG is fixed as [fe- er-ge], compare: FSB [fe-es-be] and [ef-es-be].

The pronunciation [se-she-a] was traditionally assigned to the US abbreviation: it is spelled, but not as it is customary in the literary language, but as the letters C [es] and Sh [sha] are called in colloquial speech.

Where to put the accent in the abbreviation?

When pronouncing initial abbreviations, the stress, as a rule, falls on the last syllable: EG E, GI A, FIFA A, E AND RTs, FAN O. If the abbreviation is pronounced by the names of the letters, then this syllable is usually the name of the last letter of the abbreviation: housing and communal services [je-ka-x a ], microwave [es-ve-ch e ], VDNKh [ve-de-en-x a ], OLRS [o-el-er- e s].

Stress in foreign language abbreviations that do not have a literal decoding must be checked in the dictionary: N A TO, YUN E SKO.