How to Say & Use English Abbreviations | ASAP * FOMO * BTW * FYI

Well hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.

Today I've got an awesome lesson for you about

abbreviations.

Kind of a tricky word to say, isn't it?

Abbreviation.

An abbreviation is a small group of letters

that represents a larger word or a larger phrase

and they're often used in written English

but also in spoken English too.

All of the ones I'm sharing in this lesson are really

common. They're used by native speakers in

formal situations but often

informally as well, in text messages, on internet forums.

Knowing these abbreviations will make communicating

so much easier for you and knowing how to say them

correctly will help you to be understood as well.

As usual, I've got a quiz for you at the end of this lesson

so stick around, test what you know

and put what you learn into practice.

FYI.

For all of you people out there that absolutely

love a challenge, I've got a reminder for you

from our friends at Lingoda.

The next Lingoda Language Sprint is about to start so

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then make sure you check out this video up here

that has all the deets.

The details.

Now of course, if you've been watching my channel

for a while, you'll know that I'm a Lingoda student too.

I took their ninety-day challenge as a student in Spanish

and it was awesome.

But as an English teacher, I can also really say that the

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So first up let's start with some extremely common

everyday abbreviations that you really need to know.

Okay these are essential.

You've probably seen most of them before, maybe

in professional emails or formal invitations,

in other types of formal and informal writing.

You may have even heard some of them spoken.

If you've been wondering what they mean or how to say

them, this lesson is exactly what you need.

So let's start with P.S.

Now it comes from the Latin words post scriptum,

which means written after so we use

P.S as an afterthought, to add something to a message

that you've forgotten to include.

It's not usually spoken.

So back in the day, before computers

and text messages,

our grandparents used to write letters right?

Traditionally you'd write your letter,

then you'd sign your name at the end

but then you'd realise I forgot to include that.

There's something else I wanted to add.

P.S. Mum said hello and she can't wait to see you!

Another abbreviation that you'll often see

at the end of a message is RSVP.

Now it's been around for a long time and it will

probably continue to stay around for a long time

to come. It's actually a French expression

and it stands for répondez s'il vous plaît

which simply means respond, please.

So we use it in English to ask for someone to

respond to an invitation.

In the past, you would have mostly seen it in

written invitations but these days you'll see it in

emails, you'll see it in online invitations too.

It's really common.

If you're invited to a wedding or a party or something

like that, then you'll see it written at the bottom.

Please RSVP.

When you see RSVP,

you need to respond, you need to confirm

if you're attending the event and if you're not

attending the event, you still have to tell them.

Okay so they're asking for you to respond.

If someone tells you to do something ASAP,

it means do it as soon as possible.

You'll often hear it being used in professional context,

it's really common in that setting. You might say

I'm really sorry for the delay.

I'll get the report finished ASAP.

So yeah it's used professionally, it's also used

informally a lot as well and when it's spoken

you may actually hear

the word being pronounced phonetically.

ASAP.

Can you call me back ASAP?

Or you'll also hear each letter being spoken individually.

ASAP.

Can you call me back ASAP?

Both options are fine right.

Have you heard this one

or seen it written in an email before?

It's also really common to see in a professional context

in email communication especially but actually

you might hear people say it too out loud.

It means for your information.

So use it when you want to add a little bit of

extra important information

alright something that you think that person

really would want to know.

FYI the ticket says it starts at 9am

but the speakers won't actually be there until 10.

This one is the abbreviation of the word versus.

Versus.

That second syllable is unstressed okay.

Versus.

So when you see this and you want to say it

in spoken English, you always say the complete word,

you never say VS alright?

But you will hear some native speakers reduce it down

to just verse instead of versus.

So versus is commonly used when two things are

put up against each other so you see it a lot in sports

right? When there's two teams playing each other.

Melbourne versus Sydney.

So ETA stands for estimated time of arrival

and it's really commonly used to ask

what time someone is going to arrive.

What's your ETA?

I'm about 10 minutes away.

Simple right? Really simple question.

It's also used on schedules, you'll see it written

sometimes, maybe at a train station

where it will say the train,

where it's going to and it might say ETA next to it.

Next train from Paris

ETA eight minutes.

Estimated time of arrival, eight minutes.

So it's often used in spoken and written English

but when you pronounce it out loud, you

pronounce the three letters ETA.

I could call you up over the phone and ask

What's your ETA?

Or your boss might call you

and say exactly the same thing.

What time will you arrive here?

Have you heard or even seen this one used before?

You're going to see it a lot online in

magazines, in books and blogs, that kind of thing.

It stands for do it yourself

and it is referring to home projects,

home repairs and crafts,

things that you do yourself by hand

instead of buying something that's already been

made or paying a professional to come and do it for you

So you might see DIY kitchens,

DIY flower beds, DIY craft projects.

What it means is it's simply a project that you do

at home yourself.

As you've been listening to me talk about it though,

I'm sure you've picked up that the way that we say this

word is by spelling out the letters, DIY.

So are you into DIY projects?

Maybe you've been working

on a few things during lockdown.

Wi-fi is another really, really common one,

one that my students often mispronounce

by saying whiffy which

actually sounds a little bit like a very informal word

for kind of smelly, whiffy.

You know I often see non-native English speakers

asking for wi-fi in hotel receptions

or at information desks

and the response or the reaction that they get is

kind of confused.

Wi-fi? What is that?

It's wi-fi.

This is my favourite one.

This abbreviation came from the internet but

it's become pretty mainstream now, it's very common

even in offline situations.

It's actually officially been added to the dictionary.

And it stands for fear of missing out.

And when we use it, we usually say that we have FOMO

or he has FOMO.

So think about when you're scrolling through Instagram

or Facebook or Youtube or whatever,

you get to see all these amazing things that everyone's

doing, right? People on holidays, on amazing hikes,

winning awards, graduating,

all of these awesome things.

And do you ever catch yourself feeling a little sad

or a little depressed that you're missing out?

That you're not doing those things?

It's the worst thing about social media

but that feeling is FOMO.

It's fear of missing out.

It's a feeling of missing out, of not having those things

as well but like I said now it's really used

more generally just to talk about that

feeling of anxiety when you worry about

missing out on important things or on fun social events.

I usually say yes to everything

even if I'm tired or I'm feeling lazy because

I really can't stand having FOMO!

I hate missing out.

So next up I've got some newer internet

abbreviations that you probably should know

even if you don't use them a lot yourself,

it's good to be able to recognise them and know

what's going on, right?

So you'll see them mostly in informal situations

on the internet, text messages, on social media,

that kind of thing.

Before we keep going here, I

just want to take a moment to

get something off my chest, make it really clear

that using FOMO and any of the abbreviations

that I'm about to mention

are not really appropriate in

very formal or professional contexts unless

you consider your colleague to be a really good friend

or something like that

because in most formal contexts,

using these abbreviations sends a different message

subtly, a message like

I can't really be bothered

or I don't have enough time for you.

So I just want you to be careful with

how you're using these abbreviations.

Wherever you can

just use the full word or the full expression.

Anyway we're going to see what you already know by

doing a quick little quiz or a little game.

So for each abbreviation you'll see on screen,

I'm going to give you three different options for what it

might mean. I want you to guess the correct answer

so take a pen and paper out right now,

write down your answers, tell me how many you get

right down in the comments okay. I want to see

how good you are.

Let's start with this one here.

So does this abbreviation stand for too young,

thank you

or talked yesterday?

Kind of easy. It does mean thank you

and sometimes depending on where you are

in the world, this will also be written as TQ

or TKS

but I literally hate this abbreviation, please don't use it.

If you are actually thankful,

then just write the extra couple of letters

to write the full word alright? It just shows people

that you really actually do appreciate them.

Alright so does this one mean

be right back,

burnt really badly or

but really beautiful?

So this one comes from the early days of internet

chatting when someone needed to step away from

their computer for a little bit,

just for a few minutes and they would write BRB

as in be right back.

It's still often used today in text and group chats

especially but when spoken it's never really said

BRB, just say be right back.

So this one is super common.

Does it mean by the way,

but then what or

bring the wine?

It means by the way

although maybe C is a good option too.

By the way.

So mostly you see this in text messages

when people are writing ideas really quickly

but you might even hear people say this one

out loud in informal situations, BTW.

BTW, I'm taking a break for 10 minutes. See you soon.

Actually, that just reminded me of BYO.

I forgot to mention it earlier, it's a really, really

common one that you'll often see at restaurants

and it means bring your own.

Usually it's referring to alcoholic drinks. So

bring your own wine, bring your own beer

because we don't

serve it in the restaurant.

But you know maybe when you're going to

a barbecue in a park with friends they might say

BYO meat or BYO drinks

or that kind of thing, bring your own.

Alright this one is very recent, it's new.

Does it mean time for the meeting,

too much information or

type more information.

So it stands for too much information.

So let's think about a friend who might

tell you a little bit too much information right,

too much personal information, too much detail

that's kind of awkward or disgusting.

Then you might say

TMI, I didn't need to hear that!

Alright another very, very common one,

the best hamburger,

this is boring

or to be honest.

It's definitely a really useful one to know,

it's used really frequently even

in some online magazines and blogs and things now

but it means to be honest.

To be honest, I don't think it's the best burger in town.

Again, when it's spoken,

it's spoken as full words not TBH.

In my office,

it's more obvious

or in my opinion.

Yeah this is in my opinion.

The band was great but the food wasn't very good,

in my opinion.

Another very new one but an important one to know.

In real life,

I really like

or I rarely lie.

What do you think?

So we use this one to separate real life from things that

happen online in movies or on social media

and that kind of thing. It means in real life.

They play video games together online but they've

never met in real life.

Again, don't use the letters as the abbreviation

when you speak, when you speak just say the full words.

She's my hero,

shaking my head

or somebody might hear.

Did you get it? Shaking my head

but what does that actually mean?

So in real life, we shake our head right like this

to show that we disapprove or we can't believe

something right so this is the texting form of this action.

So if you texted me and you said

I just dropped my phone in the toilet!

I could respond with

Shaking my head.

So how did you go with this little quiz?

Did you know any of them? Some of them?

Maybe you knew most of them or all of them

in which case, I'm super impressed. I really hope that

this video helps to inspire you to use them or to

feel more comfortable

when you see and you read or you hear

these different abbreviations used in English.

If there's anything that this lesson has revealed for us,

it's that English is always changing and evolving.

There's new ideas, new ways of expressing yourself

happening all of the time. You'll always be learning

new ways of expressing yourself

and hear people expressing themselves differently

and so will I.

It's the same for me, I definitely learned a few new ways

to express myself whilst researching for this lesson.

So tell me how did you go down in the comments,

which ones did you get right or wrong?

Are there any other abbreviations that

you can think of that I maybe didn't include in this

lesson or maybe there's some other ones that are

used often in your own native language that you think

we should be using in English.

Definitely share those in the comments down below

but right now I've got another lesson

right here waiting for you.

I'll see you in there!