An acronym is a word that is formed with the first letters of an expression.
An acronym is a word that is formed with the initial letters of a phrase or expression . In some cases, not all words are taken, but only the most important terms (nouns, verbs and adjectives). In this way, secondary terms (conjunctions, prepositions, etc.) are left aside.
OAS is an example of an acronym: it is the acronym corresponding to the Organization of American States . As you can see, the acronym takes the initial letters of three words ( Organization – American – States ) and omits the mention of the other two words (the preposition “of” and the article “the” ).
This is because the words considered secondary can be easily deduced, since Spanish-speaking people add them naturally to string together the others. If we happened to come across a piece of paper on which the words "organization of American states" were written, surely our intuition would lead us to include the missing words, at least during the second reading .
Acronyms with all initials
Other acronyms, however, mention the initial letters of all the words that make up the expression: GDP (Gross Domestic Product), SME (Small and Medium Enterprise), DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television), IOC (International Olympic Committee) and RAE ( Royal Spanish Academy) are some examples of this type of acronym.
In this case we find ourselves with an apparently opposite situation, but it is by no means a whim or an arbitrary issue: the reason why the conjunction Y is added to the acronym SME is that without its presence between the other two letters , the resulting text string would be impossible to pronounce in our language, since we cannot conceive the pair PM .
UN is the acronym corresponding to the United Nations Organization.
Other data to consider
Some of the main characteristics of the acronym are the following:
- The absence of periods to separate letters (something that is used in abbreviations, such as "Pág." ).
- Whenever possible they should be read as if they were words, rather than letter by letter. Two opposite examples are RAE and ONG , both acronyms.
- Acronyms that contain plural words must double the initials of each one ( Human Resources is spelled RRHH ).
Acronyms, acronyms and nouns
When the acronym is pronounced as if it were a word, it is defined as an acronym . This is what happens with the aforementioned acronym SME , which is currently usually written as SME since it is used as a noun. In this way, a person can say “I have an SME dedicated to the production of audiovisual content” , referring to the fact that they are the owner of a small or medium-sized company.
Laser is also a word that was born as an acronym in the English language (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and became a term accepted by the RAE : “The intervention is performed with a laser,” “They recommended laser hair removal to me.” ” .
In the case of SME and laser, we must treat these two words as common nouns , with all the properties and rules that we use for any other of the same group, regardless of whether they have arisen as acronyms. This means that they can fulfill the role of subject in a sentence, be modified by adjectives and articles and also complemented by a predicate, in which a verb that is understood to be executed by "them" is conjugated.
The difference between acronym and acronym is not so obvious in all cases; In fact, it is said that an acronym is a word made up of acronyms or abbreviations, each of which adds meanings associated with the words they represent. In no case are they written with dots between their letters, another similarity that often leads us to confuse them. The key to distinguishing them is that the acronym only uses the initial of each word, while the acronym is based on portions of the words that compose it.