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English: Grade 7:
Language Use: Abbreviations
ABBREVIATIONS
You have already learnt how to abbreviate many words in English and are probably
using abbreviations such as km (kilometres) and etc. (et cetera), as well as acronyms,
such as N.A.S.A, without even thinking about them too much.
You will remember that there are a number of ways to abbreviate words:
Initialisation
This is when the first letter of a word or two words is used.
Examples
e.g. is short for ‘exempli gratia’, which is the Latin for ‘for example’.
i.e. which is the abbreviation for the Latin ‘id est’, meaning ‘that is’.
Quite often the initials become the ‘word’. When last did you hear someone say “id
est” or “exempli gratia”?
A.D. means ‘Ano Domini’ (after Christ). The full stop between the letters shows that
it is an initialisation abbreviation.
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English: Grade 7:
Language Use: Abbreviations
Acronyms
This is a string of letters that is put together from the initials of a group of words,
often showing the title of an organisation.
Examples
S.A.B.C for South African Broadcasting Company.
U.S.A for United States of America.
Note: The full stops in these words are falling away with common usage. The correct
way to write them is S.A.B.C and U.S.A, but most people don’t do this anymore.
A more recent use of acronyms has come about with the use of cell phones and
computers.
Examples
lol for ‘laugh out loud’ or ‘lots of love’.
afk for ‘away from keyboard’.
brb for ‘be right back’.
Did you know that sms stands for ‘short message service’? Because ‘sms’ has
become a ‘word’ on its own, many people are unaware of its original abbreviation,
using initials of words. In many countries using ‘sms’ would not be understood, as
they refer to ‘text messages’ or ‘texting’, which is also a new word in the English
dictionary, by the way.
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English: Grade 7:
Language Use: Abbreviations
Abbreviations
This is when the first few letters of a word, and sometimes a few ‘important’ letters
throughout the word, are used, instead of writing out the whole word every time.
A full stop is only used if the last letter of the abbreviation is different to the last letter
of the full word.
For example
Doctor = Dr – no full stop.
Professor = Prof. – full stop.
Examples
Mr stands for ‘mister’.
pgs stands for ‘pages’.
Very often, abbreviations are a couple of letters of the full words, for example, msg
for message, and are used as such.
When we read the abbreviated word/s, we sometimes use the letters and sometimes
automatically say the whole word, because we understand that it is an abbreviated
version. So we say, ‘for example’ or ‘e.g.’ interchangeably, but often say
‘kilometres’ when we see ‘km’ written down.
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English: Grade 7:
Language Use: Abbreviations
Clipped Words
Another way to abbreviate words is to shorten them into new words, which become
used on their own. Clipping words is also known as ‘truncation’ or ‘shortening’.
Clipped words are often one or more syllables from the original word, which become
words in their own right through common usage.
Quite often, when this happens, people are not even aware of the original full word,
because the abbreviation becomes so commonly used that the full word falls away and
becomes out of date.
Back-clipping is when the beginning of the word is used.
Example
Fanatic has become fan.
Fore-clipping is when the end of the word is used.
Example
Telephone has become phone.
Middle clipping is when the middle of the word is used.
Example
Refrigerator has become fridge.
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English: Grade 7:
Language Use: Abbreviations
CHECKLIST
Module:
Abbreviations
Name of Learner:
Grade:
Date:
Show off your knowledge by explaining each kind of
abbreviations in the table below and hand this assessment
sheet to your teacher for him/her to mark.
I understood the various
kinds of abbreviations
and can explain them
without help.
Yes
Not
Sure
No
Initialisation is:
Example:
Acronyms are:
Example:
Abbreviations are:
Example:
Clipped words are:
Example:
My score in Activity 1 was:
My score in Activity 2 was:
Teacher’s comments:
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