Abbreviations & acronyms
Lesson opening
This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.
Abbreviations and acronyms: the full stop, the hyphen and gender
A Serbian page is full of little tags: itd., npr., dr, kg, PDV, d.o.o., bb. An English speaker recognises the type at once and then slips: a full stop where Serbian has none, none where it is required, and an acronym treated as a frozen label. This lesson shows where the full stop and the hyphen go, how acronyms are read aloud, what gender MUP is, and why SAD “the USA” takes a plural verb.
The full stop: a cut word takes one, a contraction does not
British English uses the same rule. If the abbreviation cuts the word off, not ending in the word’s last letter, the full stop is compulsory: it means “cut here”. If it contracts the word and keeps the last letter, there is no full stop. Hence British Prof. but Dr and Mr. You saw a few examples in “Basic punctuation”; here is the full picture.
In a reference to a law, the article is član, written čl.: Art. 12 is čl. 12; st. (stav) is a paragraph within the article.
Contractions are few, and they are the very titles an American hand writes with a full stop:
In letters and on door plates you will also see “g-din” and “g-đa” with a hyphen, but the Pravopis, the rulebook of Serbian spelling, has no such forms: “Mr” is g., with a full stop (only one letter is left, so the word is cut off), and “Mrs” is gđa.
Abbreviations of several words are a separate case. The common ones have fused into one unit with one full stop at the end: itd. (i tako dalje) “and so on, etc.”, npr. (na primer) “for example, e.g.”, tj. (to jest) “that is, i.e.”; tzv. (takozvani) “so-called” is written the same way. The others stay apart, with a full stop after each part: i sl. “and the like”, n. e. (nove ere, “of the new era”) “AD, CE”, p. n. e. “BC, BCE”, o. g. (ove godine) “this year”.
Never two full stops in a row
If an abbreviation with a full stop ends the sentence, one full stop closes both. Before a comma, a question mark or an exclamation mark, both marks stand.
Units and money: usually no full stop
Units are not abbreviations but international symbols: no full stop, a space after the number, no case endings. You declined the names of units in “Measurements, dimensions & units” (pet kilograma); a symbol stays a symbol.
Cheat sheet
The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.
Abbreviations and acronyms: cheat sheet
| Type | Rule | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| word cut off | full stop | god., str., br., ul., tel., mob., odn., čl., st., tač., v., up., sl., prof., inž., dipl., akad., g., sv. |
| contraction (keeps the last letter) | no full stop | dr Dr, mr master’s degree, gđa, gđica Mrs, Miss; but “Mr” is g. (no “g-din” in the Pravopis) |
| several words, fused | one full stop at the end | itd. etc., npr. e.g., tj. i.e., tzv. so-called |
| several words, apart | full stop after each part | i sl. and the like, n. e. AD/CE, p. n. e. BC/BCE, o. g. this year |
| units and currency | no full stop, space after the number, no case | mm, cm, m, km, g, kg, t, ml, dl, l, s, min, h, °C, kW, RSD, EUR, €; din or din.; 20% |
Vidi str. 25, čl. 12. Predavanje drži prof. dr Marković. Paket teži 2 kg, cena 480 din. See p. 25, Art. 12. The lecture is given by Professor Marković, PhD. The parcel weighs 2 kg; the price is 480 dinars.
Laws: čl. article, st. paragraph. Sentence end: one full stop, ...sir itd.; before “?” both, ...kartu itd.? A full stop after a number = ordinal: 5. sprat, so units never take one. Numbers: 1.200,00 = 1,200.00; currency after the amount.
Acronyms: reading, gender, case
Capitals, no full stops. Read letter by letter (RTS er-te-es, PDV pe-de-ve, JMBG je-em-be-ge, SAD es-a-de, also SPC; J is je) or as a word (MUP, SANU, NATO, PIB, NIS).
| Ends in | Gender and case | Forms and agreement |
|---|---|---|
| consonant | masculine, ending after a hyphen | MUP-a, u MUP-u, na RTS-u, sa PDV-om, bez PIB-a; RTS je objavio; motion: idem u MUP |
| vowel | no case endings, gender of the full form (except NATO-a, u NATO-u) | u SANU, članica EU; SANU je objavila, EU je usvojila |
| plural full form | no case endings, plural verb | u SAD, odluka UN; SAD su odlučile, UN su usvojile (speech: also “u SAD-u”) |
| became an ordinary word (lower case) | declines, no hyphen | Tanjug, Tanjuga, Tanjugu |
Possessive also with a hyphen: RTS-ov program; more neutral program RTS-a. Cyrillic: МУП, РТС, САНУ, ПДВ, ПИБ, ЈМБГ, НАТО, САД, ЕУ and МУП-а, на РТС-у; but IT, PDF, USB, BMW often stay in Latin letters.
Documents, signs, speech
- JMBG personal number (13 digits), PIB company tax number (9), MB registration number (8), PDV VAT
- d.o.o. Ltd, a.d. joint-stock company, pr sole trader, APR business register, JP, JKP public and utility company, PAK postal code
- bb no house number, M.P. place for the stamp; full stops: d.o.o. and M.P. with, bb and pr without
- clippings are words: faks uni, komp computer, profa teacher, kilo kilo, bus bus, mob mobile (everyday mobilni); they decline (na faksu); motel, smog are ordinary nouns