Just when you think you're developing a fairly wide vocabulary, you pick up a Spanish newspaper, or go to www.20minutos.es or www.jornada.unam.mx and find the articles are peppered with abbreviations, not all of which are in your trusty pocket dictionary.
Unfortunately, it's the nature of abbreviations that you can't translate them, unless you know what they stand for.
So here are few of the more common ones.
Let's start with the easy ones and, by easy, I mean those which use the same letters as their English equivalents, just in a different order.
OTAN=NATO. Organización del tratado del atlántico norte
ONU=UN(O). Organización de las naciones unidas
SIDA=AIDS. Síndrome de imunodeficiencia adquirida
EAU=UAE. Emiratos arábes unidos
TAC=CAT (scan). Tomografía axial computerizada
ADN=DNA. Ácido desoxirribonucleico
CE=E(E)C. Comunidad Europea
FMI=IMF. Fondo monetario internacional
Now some which are not quite so obvious
ONCE organización national de ciegos espanoles. The equivalent of the UK's RNIB
ONG organización non gubernmental = a charity
ONL organización non lucrativa = non-profit organisation
SA Sociedad anónima = equivalent of a PLC in the UK
EE UU Estados Unidos = The United States
AC/DC Nothing to do with rock music, these are the equivalents of BC and AD (antes de Cristo/despues de Cristo)
PP partido popular - Spanish political party
DF Distrito federal (in Mexico)
Edomex = Estado de México
And, finally, and rather appropriately
q.e.p.d. (que en paz descanse) or R.I.P. in English.
Oops.
Almost missed my favourite
OVNI=objeto volante no identificado (that's UFO to you and me)
I'm sure there will be many more in the News, so feel free to add comments and include any interesting ones you find.
¡Hasta la próxima!
