Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Today's topic is the difference between abbreviations, acronyms. Kristy Allison grammar I teach middle school language arts, so I often get questions from teachers as well as students. One question, needless to say, was the result in middle school minds at work. The math teacher next door to me used the abbreviation "pp" for pages, which then resulted in an eruption of laughter from the students. She asked me the correct abbreviation for pages, and I responded with "pgs" for that particular reason. After discussing the use of "pp" by college professors and such, the best explanation I could figure was that "pp" was a Latin-based abbreviation, whereas "pgs" was a more Americanized abbreviation. Any input - besides don't use "pp" for abbreviations or refer to a task as a "duty" in front of middle school students? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=21226#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=21226#Comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:55:37 GMT Karen McCoy grammar How do you abbreviate a year? Should the tail of the ' be curled down or up? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=16830#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=16830#Comments Sun, 03 May 2009 13:42:40 GMT Carolyn Bahm grammar My office's style is to put acronyms and initialisms in parentheses after the first reference. What we can't agree on is whether the first reference (the spelled-out phrase) has to be capitalized. For example, here's an industry term: average daily volume (ADV). Does "average daily volume" have to be capitalized, just because the initialism is? I could swear I read somewhere that it's not required, but I can't find it in the AP Stylebook or CMOS. Still looking. :o) http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=16341#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=16341#Comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:01:12 GMT Paul grammar Any suggestions on how to handle the Name of an institution, when using Initalisms for example “The American College of Cardiology” - when using the initalism - its it better to say "ACC are introducing a new programme" or "The Acc are introducing a new programme" http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=15417#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=15417#Comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:04:49 GMT Shuji grammar Greetings and a question from Japan.Is the word "blog" abbreviations? Or just an unusual acronyum as ID as you discussed? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=13352#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=13352#Comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:46:01 GMT Wes grammar Any idea on the rules for the use of a corporate abbreviation like "LLC"? I know there should be a comma between the company name and LLC, but I'm unsure as to if there should also be a period after LLC? Should it be Jameson Solutions, LLC, is a great company. OR Jameson Solutions, LLC. is a great company. OR Jameson Solutions, LLC., is a great company. ANY IDEAS??? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=13137#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=13137#Comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:03:52 GMT dude grammar do acronyms have conjunctions in them? like bffe (best friend forever and ever) but you dont put the and. or wouldyou put it like bffae? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=13042#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=13042#Comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:25:10 GMT Charles Carson grammar I'm reminded of a David Sedaris essay in "Me Talk Pretty One Day" (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000) in which he describes the hip teenagers he encountered in rural France asking him all about New York, which they pronounced 'ny' (a single word rhyming with 'eye'). When he tried to correct them, they replied, "But doesn't everyone is oosah say it that way?" http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=12933#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=12933#Comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:32:52 GMT Charles Carson grammar In "A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics" (5th ed, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003) under the headword "abbreviations," David Crystal writes, "Initialisms and alphabetisms reflect the separate pronunciation of the initial letter of the constituent words (TV, COD); acronyms are pronounced as single words (NATO, laser); clipped forms or clippings are reductions of longer forms, usually removing the end of the word (ad from advertisement), but sometimes the beginning (plane), or both beginning and ending together (flu); and blends combine parts of two words (sitcom, motel)." http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=12932#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=12932#Comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:18:37 GMT Lori grammar Is there a reference when to use uppercase vs lowercase for initialism? I've commonly seen uppercase for proper names, and lower case for things that follow a number such as ft. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=12592#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx?commentid=12592#Comments Tue, 13 May 2008 22:33:10 GMT Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:55:37 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/acronyms-grammar.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us