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American English is full of short ways of saying things. From ASAP and op-ed to NAFTA and CalTech, Americans love using abbreviations in everyday speech. Alan gives examples of abbreviations, initialisms, and acronyms, with a quiz at the end of the video. Can you guess all ten?
We know we shouldn't be calling people "retards." Even though we don’t want to offend and say the wrong thing, we often don't know the proper language to use. The expression recommended by the people at r-word.org is “intellectual disability” (they sometimes abbreviate it as I.D.). Find out about this national campaign to change the U.S. conversation so everyone can feel like they belong.
If you’ve lived or worked around Americans, you know their English is full of shortened ways to say things. You might believe this is because Americans are consumed with saving time. But in fact, all languages have shorter, more efficient ways of saying things when they want to. Because human minds work more quickly than their tongues, speakers are always looking for ways to get out more information with fewer syllables.
Three ways of doing this in English are abbreviations, initialisms, and acronyms. Because these three types are often confused, let’s do a quick review.
Abbreviations are a shortened form of the entire expression.
• TV – television
• op-ed – opinion-editorial
• Cal Tech – California Technological University
Initialisms are pronounced one letter at a time. Note that the names of the letters tend to link together as they’re pronounced, with stress falling on the last letter.
• USA – United States of America
• TGIF – Thank God It’s Friday
• m.p.h. – miles per hour
Acronyms are said as one word.
• NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• scuba – self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
• NASA – National Space & Aeronautics Administration
For my international friends, you should know that many Americans don’t recognize the distinction. They often call all three “abbreviations” when the expressions may be acronyms or initialisms. If that happens, don’t worry; just consider yourself smarter now than most of your American friends and co-workers.
Feel Like You Belong is a sometimes serious, sometimes funny, always “touch-your-heart” real conversation about fitting into the American culture. It introduces guests who have made the immigrant journey to the United States. The stories–of both struggle and success–will help newcomers feel more confident in sharing their opinions and expertise, more likely to want to stay in the U.S., be more productive in their jobs, and fully invest in their communities.
