Guides to full forms and abbreviations

How short forms work, how to write them, and how to tell a real full form from an invented one.

A list of full forms answers "what does it stand for?". These guides answer the questions that come after. What is the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym, which a grammar paper may ask? Is it "a MLA" or "an MLA"? Do you write "ATMs" or "ATM's"? Why do e.g. and i.e. look so strange? Which of the full forms forwarded on WhatsApp are simply made up? And what do you do when the same letters mean three different things?

Each guide is short and uses examples from Indian school, office and daily life.

• Abbreviation, acronym and initialism: the difference
• How to write abbreviations correctly
• Full forms that are not real
• Latin short forms used in English
• One short form, many meanings

Then practise

Test yourself with the full form quiz, which draws its questions from all 481 entries, or browse by subject.