Abbreviations

People are often unsure about how to write abbreviations. The main areas of uncertainty are:

人们经常不知道该如何使用缩写，不确定的方面主要是：

whether to write abbreviations with capital letters

是否该用大写字母写缩写词

whether to use full stops

是否要加上英文句点（.）

when to use apostrophes.

什么时候用撇号（'）

Here’s a quick-reference guide to help you get it right.

本文为您提供快速参考指南，帮助您正确使用。

 

There are several kinds of abbreviation: the way an abbreviation is written usually depends on the category to which it belongs. The categories are listed below –

英文中有几种缩写形式，而不同的方式通常取决于词汇所属的范畴。分类如下——

Acronyms

Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as they are spelled, not as separate letters. Examples include:

acronym（首字母缩略词）指由其他单词首字母组成的单词，按照拼写方式发音，而不是每个字母单独发音。例如：

aronym	full form
Aids 艾滋病	acquired immune deficiency syndrome 获得性免疫缺陷综合征
NATO 北约	North Atlantic Treaty Organization 北大西洋公约组织
UNESCO 联合国教科文组织	United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization 联合国教育、科学和文化组织
SIM (card) SIM卡	subscriber identification module SIM卡/用户身份识别卡

 

Most acronyms can be written as capital letters or with only an initial capital letter.

大多数acronym可以用大写字母，或仅仅第一个字母大写。

 

Some acronyms are so established that they are now ‘normal’ words, generally used without conscious awareness of their original full form. These words should be written in lower-case letters. Examples include:

有些acronym非常成熟，现在都是看着很“正常”的词汇，通常人们意识不到它们原来的完整形式。这些词应该用小写字母，例如： 

aronym	full form
laser 激光	light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation 激光/受激辐射光放大
radar 雷达	radio detection and ranging 无线电探测与测距
quango 半官方机构	quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization 准自主非政府组织
scuba 水肺	self-contained underwater breathing apparatus 自给式水下呼吸器

Contractions

Contractions are a type of abbreviation in which letters from the middle of the word are omitted. Examples include:

contraction（缩写词）也是一种缩写形式，省略了单词中间的字母。例如： 

contraction	full form
Dr	Doctor 医生/博士
St	Saint 圣人
Ltd	Limited 有限公司
Revd	Reverend 教士/牧师

 

A contraction can also be an abbreviated form of more than one word, for example:

contraction也可以由两个单词形成，例如：

contraction	full form
I'll	I will / I shall
we've	we have
shouldn't	should not

 

You do not need to use a full stop at the end of contractions, because the last letter of the original word is still present.

无需在contraction后使用句点，因为原始单词的最后一个字母还保留着。

In contractions that represent more than one word, the letters that have been omitted should be replaced with an apostrophe.

当contraction代表两个或以上的单词，那省略掉的部分应用撇号代替。

Initialisms

Initialisms are abbreviations which consist of the initial (i.e. first) letters of words and which are pronounced as separate letters when they are spoken. Examples include:

initialism（首字母缩略词）也是取所有单词首字母组合而成的单词，但在发音时要单独发音每个字母。例如：

initialism	full form
BBC	British Broadcasting Corporation 英国国家广播公司
MP	Member of Parliament 国会议员
UN	United Nations 联合国
TUC	Trades Union Congress 英国工会联盟
UK	United Kingdom 大英联合王国
CD	compact disc 光盘/压缩磁盘

You do not need to put full stops after the letters in an initialism. Sometimes, especially in American English, certain initialisms may include full stops if that is the preferred style of a particular writer or publisher. For example, the forms US and U.S. are both acceptable, as long as one or the other is used consistently within a piece of writing.

在initialism之后无需添加句点。但有时，特别是在美式英语中，有些initialism中会有标点，这有可能是某些特定作家或出版社偏爱的风格。例如，US和U.S.都可以接受，只要在一篇文章中保持一致即可。

When you are forming the plural of an initialism, you do not need to use an apostrophe, for example:

当你要使用initialism的复数形式时，直接转换复数，无需使用撇号（’），例如：

MPs	e.g. MPs voted against the bill.
CDs	e.g. I bought some new CDs today.

Note that the possessive form of initialisms is formed in the usual way, with an apostrophe+ s:

注意，如果是所有格形式，要按通常方式加上撇号，如：

an MP’s salary	(i.e. the salary of an MP)
a report on MPs’ expenses	(i.e. the expenses of MPs)
the CD’s subtitle	(i.e. the subtitle of the CD)

Shortenings

Shortenings are abbreviations in which the beginning or end of the word has been dropped. In some cases both the beginning and the end have been omitted. Examples include:

shortening（缩略词）是将单词开头或结尾删去后形成的缩写词。某些情况下开头和结尾都被删去。例如：

shortening	full form
cello	violoncello 大提琴
flu	influenza 流感
ad	advertisement 广告
blog	weblog 博客
rhino	rhinoceros 犀牛
telly	television 电视
bike	bicycle 自行车

 

In some cases, the shortening involves a slight spelling change, as with bike and telly.

某些情况下，shortening会有些许拼写变化，例如bike和telly。

 

These shortenings are now an accepted part of the language. In fact some of the original, longer forms tend to be used only in formal or technical writing. It would sound rather odd, for example, to describe a person as suffering from influenza unless you were writing in a scientific context.

这些shortening目前已是广泛接受的语言。事实上，一些原始的、较长的单词形式只在正式或技术性写作中使用。例如，如果说到某人患流感时说他suffering from influenza，这除非是在科学论述文中，否则听起来会很奇怪。

You do not need to use an apostrophe in shortenings to show that letters have been omitted.

shortening无需使用撇号来显示被省略的字母。

You should only use a capital letter if the original form also starts with a capital letter, for example:

在原始单词首字母是大写的情况下，shortening首字母也要大写，例如：

Med	Mediterranean 地中海
Brit	British (person) 英国（人）
Jag	Jaguar 美洲虎

You do not need to use a full stop unless the shortening is one created specifically for use in writing, for example:

shortening中无需使用句点，除非该词专门用于书面语，例如：

Dec.	December 十二月
Tue.	Tuesday 星期二
etc.	et cetera 等等

（感谢复旦大学高承天友情整理自“牛津辞典”）