The abbreviation is a spelling resource that makes it possible to shorten a word.
The term abbreviation has its origin in the Latin language. It is an orthographic type procedure that involves the reduction of a word through the deletion of final or central letters and that, generally, ends with a period . Some examples are: Atte. (for "sincerely" ), Mr. (for "sir" ), Dr. (for "doctor" ).
Although the aforementioned abbreviations (and many others) are widely used and have acquired a conventional form, anyone who knows how to write can create an abbreviation for personal use. When a writer does this, he usually includes a glossary at the beginning or end of his work explaining any particular abbreviations he has used.
Ways to create an abbreviation
There are two ways to abbreviate a term: by truncation or by contraction . Abbreviation by truncation consists of eliminating the final part of the word, as can be seen by observing Av. (for "avenue" ), or etc. (for "etcetera" ).
In the Spanish language, this type of abbreviation never ends in a vowel, unlike other languages, such as English (see Ave. , which corresponds to the term "avenue" , which means avenue ).
Av. and Avda. are possible abbreviations for "avenue."
Differences by language
This leads us to deal with a very common mistake made by students of foreign languages, or by those people who consider that they know how to speak a language simply because it has certain superficial similarities with their own: transferring the spelling rules from their native language to the foreign language. Both punctuation and word division, accentuation, grammar and, of course, abbreviations can vary substantially from one language to another, and it is essential to take this into account to learn correctly.
The most common thing, regardless of the construction of the abbreviation itself, is to assume that they all have a full stop. If we take as an example "doctor", one of the terms that is most commonly written abbreviated in several languages , it is very likely that many people believe the abbreviation Dr. is correct in any Romance language, among which are Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French, among many others. In the same way, given that the Anglo-Saxon term "doctor" is widely known and has the same spelling as its corresponding Spanish, it is surely also considered natural that it be abbreviated just as in Spanish.
Using this last case in particular, if we refer to the English rules for constructing abbreviations, we will notice that if its last letter corresponds to the last of the original term, then it should not end with a period. This makes it evident that the Spanish "Dr." and the English "Dr" there is a difference , no matter how small it may seem, and they should not be used interchangeably.
Abbreviation for contraction
The abbreviation by contraction , on the other hand, involves the elimination of the central letters of the word, leaving only the most representative ones; some of the most used are Avda. (for "avenue" ) and no. (for "number" ).
There are abbreviations that can end in flying letters, such as n.º (for "number" ). On the other hand, there are abbreviations in which the final period of a word is replaced by a forward slash : c/c (for "current account" ) or c/u (for "each one" ). There are even abbreviations that can be written in parentheses: (a) (for "alias" ).
It should be noted that, according to the spelling rule, abbreviations should maintain the accent of the word of origin, as occurs with page. (for "page" ).
Acronyms and acronyms
The acronym and the acronym are other types of abbreviations and are often confused with each other and with abbreviations, although in essence they are clearly different.
The acronym consists of taking the initial letter of each word that makes up a complex expression , such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product); The acronym , on the other hand, uses more letters of the terms it combines, so that its sound is equivalent to that of a word, as is the case with MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market).