Are abbreviations translated into English. Basic methods of translating abbreviations. Ways to form abbreviations

In the modern age, saturated with information, there is less and less time for communication and correspondence. No matter how paradoxical it may sound, but the more information a person owns, the more ways he is looking for to reduce it and transmit it in a more concise form. One of the best ways to shorten words and expressions is to use abbreviations.

Today they are ubiquitous in general English, in business correspondence, in SMS messages and chats, in international terms. Many of them are used quite often, so not only English learners, but also an ordinary modern person should master a couple of the most common of them.

Abbreviation(Italian abbreviatura from lat. brevis - short) - a word formed by abbreviation of a word or phrase and read by the alphabetic name of the initial letters or by the initial sounds of the words included in it.

Abbreviations are found in any language of the world and play a huge role. Sometimes ignorance or incorrect use of one or another abbreviation in English can lead to a rather awkward situation or misunderstanding of what the interlocutor wants to express with this or that phrase.

Let's look at an example of the misuse of a fairly well-known abbreviation lol(laughing out loud - laugh out loud).

messages
Mom: Your beloved aunt just passed away. lol
I: Why is that funny?
Mom: It's not funny, David!
I: Mom, LOL means “laughing out loud”.
Mom: Oh my goodness! I thought it means “lots of love”...I sent it to everyone! I need to call everybody…

Messages
Mom: Your beloved aunt has just passed away. lol
Me: What's funny about that?
Mom: That's not funny, David!
Me: Mom, lol mean "laugh out loud".
Mom: Oh God! I thought it meant lots of love...
I sent this to everyone! We all need to call...

Business Letters and Abbreviations

Writing business letters and compiling business correspondence today requires high-quality study and a careful approach. Faced with the design and decoding of abbreviations in business English for the first time, a beginner sometimes experiences confusion and bewilderment of what it all means. The difficulty lies in the correct use of this or that abbreviation, as well as in the specifics of business vocabulary. However, as in any field of language learning, knowledge and a little practice will help to cope with any difficulties.

A number of abbreviations are used only in writing, but in oral speech the full forms of the word are pronounced:

Mr. (mister)- Mister;
Mrs. (mistress)- Mrs.
Dr. (doctor)- doctor;
St. (Saint/Street)- saint or street;
Blvd. (boulevard)- boulevard;
Ave. (avenue)- avenue;
Sq. (square)- square;
Rd. (road)- road;
Bldg. (building)- building;
B. Sc. (Bachelor of Science)- Bachelor of Science;
M.A. (Master of Arts)- Master of Arts;
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)- PhD;
M.D. (Doctor of Medicine)- Doctor of Medical Sciences.

The most popular business abbreviations of English words are given below:

Co (company)- company;
PA (personal assistant)- personal assistant;
Appx. (appendix)- Appendix;
Re. (reply)- answer;
p. (page)- page;
smth. (something)- something;
smb. (somebody)- somebody;
vs( lat. versus)- against;
etc. ( lat. et cetera)- And so on.

Popular three-letter acronyms ( TLA or Three Letter Acronyms) in the business area:

CAO (Chief Administrative Officer)- Administration Manager;
CEO (Chief Executive Officer)- chief executive officer (general director);
exp. (export)- export - export of goods outside the country;
HR (human resources)- personnel service of the enterprise;
HQ (Headquarters)- head office of the company;
LLC (limited liability company)- limited liability company (LLC);
R&D (research and development)- Research and development;
IT (information technology)- Information Technology.

Examples of business correspondence using abbreviations :

Dear Mr. Brown, our co will be glad to offer you the position of CAO.- Dear Mr. Brown, our company will be glad to offer you the position of chief accountant of the company.
Dear Ms. Stone, my PA will definitely contact you about changes in exp. process - Dear Ms. Stone, my personal secretary will definitely contact you about changes in the export process.

Chats and SMS

As mentioned above, there are three-letter Acronyms in English ( TLA or Three Letter Acronyms), which help shorten and compress fairly large phrases down to 3 letters. Today, this is a fairly popular way to save time when chatting on social networks.

BFN (bye for now)- see you, bye
BTW (by the way)- by the way
FYI (for your information)- for your information
JIT (just in time)- in time
IOW (in other words)- in other words, in other words
NRN (no reply is necessary)- no answer required
OTOH (on the other hand)- on the other hand

As for SMS abbreviations, there are a huge number of them.
The specificity of such abbreviations is that it can be almost impossible to decipher without a detailed analysis.

GL (good luck)- good luck!
GB (good bye)- bye
DNO (don't know)- I don't know
ASAYGT (as soon as you get this)- as soon as you receive it
B4 (before)- before
BC (because)- because
BON (believe it or not)- believe it or not
BW (best wishes)- with best wishes
BZ (busy)- busy
CYT (see you tomorrow)- see you tomorrow

Wish you GL on your exam. Mom. - I wish you good luck on the exam. Mother.
Sorry. b.z. CYT.- I am sorry. Busy. See you tomorrow.
I will be JIT. GB.- I'll be on time. Bye.

For a detailed acquaintance with English abbreviations of words in SMS, we recommend visiting, which contains 2000+ abbreviations.

As we can see, the topic is quite extensive, but do not be afraid! Having encountered acronyms and abbreviations in English several times, you simply cannot help but love them for their originality and help in saving you time. And having fallen in love with something, you will surely and easily remember it!

We offer you to choose a couple of abbreviations for yourself right now and surprise your loved ones with improved communication! BFN and watch your step while texting!

Big and friendly family EnglishDom

It should be emphasized that the system of abbreviations and abbreviations in any language is an integral part of its lexical-semantic system and therefore the systems of abbreviations in different languages have significant differences. The frequency of use of specific groups of abbreviations or abbreviations varies greatly, in particular in English e.g. (exempli gratia), while in Russian use "for example" in similar cases. From this example, it can be seen that one should not always strive to convey foreign abbreviations in Russian as an abbreviation. Possessing an almost exclusively naming function, the abbreviation, as a rule, is translated by its equivalent - the name of the same referent in TL, and in the absence of the same - often the name of a close concept (cf. Russian registry office, English Registry office). Thus, this can only be called a translation conditionally, since the abbreviation, as a rule, does not have its own meaning, but is a reduced reflection of the value of the original unit - a ratio that should also be preserved in the translation into Russian as an abbreviation.

In dictionaries, including medical ones, very little attention is paid to this area. Existing dictionaries of medical abbreviations, both bilingual (D. Drozdov, English-Russian Dictionary of Medical Abbreviations, Infoart, 1997) and monolingual (The Hutchinson Dictionary of abbreviations, Helicon, 2006), are often useless. This is especially true for articles on highly specialized areas of medicine. Internet search engines are of great help in translating abbreviations.

In any case, a translator or a person who is faced with the translation of abbreviations and abbreviations needs to know the main ways of translating them into Russian. These ways are:

1. Transfer of a foreign abbreviation with an equivalent Russian abbreviation. Assumes the presence of an abbreviation or abbreviation in the TL. It is best when this unit is already established in the language. In PJ, the abbreviation can be built according to the same model: the USSR in English. USSR.; English UNO corresponds to Russian. UN. When using this method, you need to know the equivalent Russian abbreviation for sure, in case of doubt, check its spelling in the appropriate reference books or dictionaries.
2. Descriptive translation. Applicable in cases where there is no equivalent abbreviation in the TL. The original unit is being translated: English. TV (TV), which is widespread in English-speaking countries, will have to transmit a deployed "television"; Russian editorial board - English, editorial board; English ICPA (International Commission for the Prevention of Alcoholism) - International Commission on Alcoholism; Russian TSUM - English. Central Department Store, etc. A long-form translation is a translation of the original unit and should be as accurate as possible. As a rule, abbreviations of academic degrees and titles are also translated, in particular those that do not have equivalent names in the TL. For example, V. A. (S.) -Bachelor of Arts (Science) will be translated into Russian - Bachelor of Arts (natural) sciences.
3. Transfer of the alphabetic composition of a foreign abbreviation in Russian letters (transliteration). Using this method, the abbreviated names of military blocs, political parties and other political organizations, industrial firms, various communities, etc. are usually transmitted. Transliteration of abbreviations is typical for proper names indicated by abbreviations, for example - English. UNESCO-UNESCO; INTERPOL - INTERPOL.
4. Transmission of the phonetic form of a foreign abbreviation in Russian letters (transcription). Transcription of the original form is permissible in cases where it is an abbreviated name of an enterprise, society, company, etc., which do not have a correlative form in the TL. Yes, am. AR (Associated Press) is transmitted by Russian. AL, but often the Associated Press; English BOAC (British Overseas Airways Company), an aviation company, in Russian referred to as British Overseas Airways Company, BBC - the pronunciation of the English abbreviation Air Force.
5. Creation of a new Russian abbreviation. This method consists in translating the correlate of a foreign abbreviation and creating a new abbreviation in Russian on the basis of the translation in accordance with the laws of the Russian abbreviation. Using this method, for example, the CIA and NSA abbreviations were formed (CIA - Central Intelligence Agency - Central Intelligence Agency; NSA National Security Agency - National Security Agency).

The main task of abbreviations is the economy of speech and written text. When pronounced, the abbreviation is about five times shorter in sound time than the corresponding concept, and when written, the savings are even more impressive. However, the benefits of such savings are good only as long as the abbreviations are clear to the interlocutors and their interpreter.

Often for an interpreter, and sometimes for a writer, the use of abbreviations in speech or text is a certain difficulty. Even when using well-known and frequently used abbreviations, serious questions can arise. For example, ECAC - European Civil Aviation Conference - European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC). How should this abbreviation be translated during interpretation - as indicated in the dictionary - "EKGA", or how it sounds quite often even in the speech of speakers in Russian - "IKAK"? Or AIC - Aeronautical Information Circular - Aeronautical Information Circular (AIC) - is it still "AIC" or "AIK", as translators often pronounce it? Most likely, both in the first and second examples, the first options, ECAC and AIC, have a greater right to life, simply because they are correct.

By areas of use, abbreviations can be divided into several rather voluminous areas of aviation activity:

Names of organizations, structures, meetings, for example: ICAO - International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO - International Civil Aviation Organization), ANC - Air Navigation Commission (ANC - Air Navigation Committee), SCAA - State Civil Aviation Authority (GS GA - State Civil Aviation Service ), EANPG - European Air Navigation Planning Group (European Air Navigation Planning Group - EANPG), RACGAT - Russian-American Coordinating Group for Air Traffic /Control/ (Russian-American ATC Coordination Group - RACGAT).

As can be seen even from a small number of examples given, English abbreviations have different ways of translating them into Russian. So, although ICAO has a translation into Russian, which could also be used as an abbreviation, nevertheless, in Russian, transliteration is almost completely preserved (with the exception of the “C” - “K” pair).

SCAA is one of the few cases where the Russian abbreviation has been translated into English.

But EANPG in Russian has no corresponding abbreviation. It is widely practiced to "translate" similar abbreviations into Russian in the same phonetic shell in which they sound in English.

Widely known and frequently used abbreviations used in flight operations, air traffic management, etc., for example: RVSM - Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum - RVSM), ATC - Air Traffic Control (Air Traffic Control - ATC) , AIP - Aeronautical Information Publication (Aeronautical Information Publication - AIS / AIP), CNS / ATM - Communications, navigation, and surveillance / air traffic management (Communication, navigation and surveillance / air traffic management), WGS-84 - World Geodetic System - 1984 (World Geodetic System -1984).

Although this section of abbreviations is quite simple, nevertheless, many people face certain difficulties when translating it. First of all, this is due to the fact that after the well-known political changes in the 90s of the last century, the development of the Russian aviation language took place mostly outside the area of attention of translators from countries where the Russian language was no longer used. It is known that when translating documents of ICAO and other organizations into national languages, translators faced certain difficulties, looking for correspondences in the aviation language of their republic. Today they also face a rather difficult task; since they are involved in the translation of multinational meetings with two working languages - English and Russian, the experience gained before the 90s is no longer enough.

And if the translation of speech practically does not cause difficulties, then abbreviations sometimes become an insurmountable obstacle. So, even quite experienced translators often get confused in Russian abbreviations for ATC, ATS, ATC, often making incorrect translations, which leads to a change in meaning, loss of time and mistrust.

ATC - air traffic control, i.e., ATC - Air Traffic Control; ATS - air traffic service, i.e., ATS - Air Traffic Service, and ATM - air traffic management, i.e., Air Traffic Management.

The main translator's assistant may be ICAO Document 9713 “International Civil Aviation Vocabulary”, published in 1998 and replacing Document 9294 “ICAO Lexicon”, 1986 edition.

Abbreviations for ICAO, Eurocontrol and US FAA.

Of course, most of the abbreviations are used in the same way both in ICAO documents and in Eurocontrol and the US FAA. However, there are also differences. Basically, these differences relate to the concepts and terms themselves, but since many of them are used in an abbreviated form, they deserve mention. Thus, the abbreviation ACC - Area Control Center used by ICAO and Eurocontrol in the American version sounds like ARTCC - Air Route Traffic Control Center.

Another option is that the same abbreviations in different organizations mean different concepts. So, “CAP” in Eurocontrol is just “capacity”, and in ICAO it is Continuing Airworthiness Panel (Airworthiness Conservation Panel).

Separately, there are abbreviations used in the conduct of radiotelephone communications between pilots and dispatchers. They (abbreviations) are not so numerous, and this is already nice. Since the unambiguity of the applied phraseology is one of the main requirements, it is impossible to meet two identical abbreviations here. A fairly complete list of abbreviations can be found in the methodological manual "Rules and Phraseology for Radio Communication in English between Aircraft and Vessel Crews and Air Traffic Controllers in the Airspace of the Russian Federation".

And yet, sometimes incidents happen. From his flight practice, I recall an episode when the navigator, after the dispatcher's instruction “Climb to altitude 6000 feet Victor Mike Charlie”, frantically leafed through the collection in search of a VOR with VMC call signs, although this meant only “visual meteorological conditions”. So the non-recommended pronunciation of the abbreviation by the controller could mislead the crew.

Technical abbreviations are the most numerous and complex layer of abbreviations. They are most often encountered in translation, and this implies the presence of time for reflection and research. Most likely, you will have to search everywhere - in aviation and technical dictionaries, by interviewing acquaintances, not very familiar and completely unfamiliar people.

Translators who have encountered AFTN and SITA messages know that the abbreviations in them make up a large part of the text. They begin with an address part of eight letters in the AFTN protocol and seven characters in the SITA format. AFTN, being essentially a network for the coordination of flight operations and air traffic services, uses generally accepted and well-known abbreviations, especially in aircraft movement messages: MVT - movement, FPL - flight plan, ARR - arrival, DEP - departure, DLA - delay, AFIL - air filed plan, CNL - cancel, etc. Along with them, many others are used, for example: ISO - instead of, YR - your, ADZ - advise, FLT - flight, N - and, TKS - thanks, BRGDS - best regards.

SITA, which solves mostly commercial problems, has its own abbreviations in addition to the above. These are, for example, ALL IN - all inclusive, EXCL - excluding, POS - positioning, DEPOS - depositioning, CGO - cargo, PAX - passengers, and others.

I have a student who is engaged in science. And in science, without abbreviations, nowhere. Yes, and in ordinary writing, including fiction, not to mention specialized, abbreviations like e.g., i.e. or everyone knows etc. dark darkness. Some of them come from Latin, but most are just abbreviations of English words. I offer you a list of the most commonly used abbreviations (in places with examples and notes):

A.D.(anno Domini) - AD year
B.C.(Before Christ) - BC
Please note that AD is placed before the date (AD64), BC - after (300BC); when specifying the century, both come after the numeral (second century AD, fourth century BC)

approx.(approximately / approximate)

avg.(average) - average, on average

ca.(circa - /?s3?k?/) - approximately, approximately: e.g. "People first came to the area ca 1700."

cent.(century, centuries) - century, centuries

cf.(confer, compare) - see also, cf., reference often found in books

co.(column) - column

cont(d).(continued) - continuation. This abbreviation may have a different meaning depending on the context, for example, contained, contents, contraction, continent etc.

ctr.(center) - center, central d. (died, died in) - died: e.g. "The dean of the university at that time was Sir James Stone (d. 1965)."

ed.(edited, edition) - ed., edition, published

e.g.(exempli gratia - for example) - for example. Please note that this abbreviation is read exactly as "for example"! No unauthorized "and ji": e.g. "You can use different adjectives to describe it, e.g. wonderful, beautiful, amazing or splendid."

esp.(especially) - especially: e.g. "I like ice-cream, esp. pistachio-flavoured ice-cream."

est(d).(established / estimated) - based; estimated, estimate: e.g. "He worked in TD McGuire est. 1987"; "He received est. $10mln."

et al.(et alii) - and others (in the bibliography "with co-authors")

incl.(including) - including: e.g. "They put everything in one box, including books on Chaucer."

hr(hours) - hour, hours: e.g. "This car can travel 230 km/hr."

max., min.(maximum, minimum) - maximum, minimum

misc.(miscellaneous) - other: e.g. "The shelf was full of misc. objects."

n.a.: 1) not applicable - not applicable to this case, does not apply: e.g. "This formula shows the general law (n.a. in acid environment)";
2) not available, non available - not available, no data

NB(nota bene - note particularly) - bene note, mark "notice well, take note"

no.(number) - number: e.g. "I gave him a mug with the text "I am Dad No.1.""

prev.(previous) - previous: e.g. "See preview page for more information."

pt.(part) - part: e.g. "You can look it up in Quantum Physics pt. II."

qt.(quantity / quart) - quantity; quart

resp.(respectively) - respectively: e.g. "Basic earnings increased 40% and 39 % to $0.55 and $0.54 resp."

std.(standard) - standard, standard

vs.(versus) - against: e.g. "We went to see Alien vs. Predator"

w/(with) - with: e.g. "Add sugar w/ cinnamon to the batter."

w/o(without) - without: e.g. "There you can order sandwiches w/o mayo."