How to spell acronyms in Spanish

Question

My teacher asked us to spell acronyms in Spanish, I'd like to know how to go about doing that when the symbols used to represent letters in Spanish is are identical to those In English

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrónimo - bosquederoble, Oct 4, 2016

Welcome to SpanishDict. We ask that all new members complete their profiles with their native language, and what level of Spanish you feel you are, like, beginner, intermediate, etc. as well as gender. - ray76, Oct 5, 2016

Answer 1

Hi, and welcome.

Would you mind filling out your profile? People can help you better if they know your Spanish and English proficiency, and sometimes your gender and location.

I don't understand your question, and I suspect that it might be your teacher's fault, not yours.

The computer term modem comes from modulator-demodulator. In Spanish, it's borrowed almost exactly; it's módem (note accent for pronunciation). Similarly, laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is láser.

On the other hand, the Spanish equivalent of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is SIDA (síndrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida).

So you see, Spanish treats different English acronyms differently.

Just to make things more complicated: Technically speaking, an acronym is a word formed from letters of other words (usually first letters) and pronounced as a word (as in all my examples above). So ATM (automated teller machine), for example, is not an acronym, because we pronounce each letter, rather than saying atom. Is your teacher making this distinction, or is she lumping initialisms like ATM into the acronym category (as many people do)?

Does this help you at all? I don't think so. Sorry!

Thanks mate your a 'little ripper ' fair dinkum ! - ray76, Oct 5, 2016