Acronyms and Abbreviations
An acronym is a word that is created from the initial letters or sounds related to a compound name or phrase.
| NATO is an acronym for North Atlantic Treaty Organization |
| LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation |
| AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome |
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word, name or phrase.
| FBI is an abbreviation for Federal Bureau of Investigation |
| HIV is an abbreviation for Human Immune Virus |
| URL is an abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator (World Wide Web address) |
Look at these examples and you will see the difference. An acronym is a word that is pronounced as a word, and which
is contrived from a combination of sounds associated with a multi-word name
or phrase. We do not say L A S
E R as separate letters, but we say laser and a word based on the pronunciation
patterns associated with the letter combination. On the other hand, the FBI is not pronounced as a word as in
fbi – it is pronounced by saying the separate letters of the combination, as
in F B I, making it an abbreviation. We
do not refer to the United Nations an the UN an in unload – we
say U N by saying the names of the letters, making it an abbreviation.
This is very confusing for many ESL students. Let’s try to explain this problem with a few examples.
| Lets take the abbreviation FBI. Would we say “a FBI agent” or “an FBI agent”? The abbreviation starts with an F, which is a consonant. However, when we say the letter F, we are not making an “f” sound like in “farm”. Instead, we are pronouncing the letter F something like “eff”, giving it a vowel sound at the beginning. Therefore, we would say an “FBI agent”. |
| Let’s take the abbreviation UN. Would we say “a UN delegate” or an UN “delegate”? The abbreviation starts with a U, which is a vowel. However, when we say the letter U, ye are not making an “u” sound like in “umbrella”. Instead, we are pronouncing the letter U something like “you”, giving it a consonant sound at the beginning. Therefore, we would say “a UN delegate”. |
| Following this pattern we would use articles in the following manner |
| NCO for non-commissioned officer would be “an NCO” |
| UFO for unidentified flying object would be “a UFO” |
|
HIV for human immune virus would be “an HIV infection” |