Shortening of Words in Spanish

Quick Answer

One Spanish word may be shortened in different ways, the most common of which are:

Abbreviations and symbols: Sr.(Mr.), km(km)

Apocopes and other shortenings: san(Saint), profe(teacher)

The combination of two or more Spanish words may be shortened by using abbreviations or symbols, or through:

Contractions: al(to the, into the)

Blends: cantautor(singer-songwriter)

Acronyms: ONU(UN)

Shortenings

Some Spanish words may be shortened when they are written. There are various ways of shortening a single word, or even a group of words, in Spanish. These are the most common ways:

Abbreviations

In Spanish, standard abreviaturas(abbreviations) of certain words are used in some contexts.

They are normally written with lowercase letters, unless the shortened form is capitalized. For example: ed.(ed.) that stands for edición(edition), or Fdez.that stands for Fernández(Fernandez).

They usually end with a period, but a few of them use a slash instead. For example: c.(c.) that stands for centavo(cent), or c/(St.) that stands for calle(street).

In abbreviations of groups of words, each shortened element gets a period. For example: a. de C.(BC) that stands for antes de Cristo(before Christ).

An abbreviation must be formed with the first letter of the shortened word, and it may include up to four more letters from the word. For example: D.that stands for don(Mr.), Dr.(Dr.) that stands for doctor(doctor), Dña.that stands for doña(Ms., Mrs.), dpto.(dept.) that stands for departamento(department), or dupdo.that stands for duplicado(copy, duplicate).

If the abbreviation is formed with the first few letters of the word, it must end in a consonant rather than a vowel. For example: cap.(ch.) that stands for capítulo(chapter).

Note that in Spanish, an abbreviation can’t be pronounced as it is written. Instead, the full word is uttered when reading it. For example, the abbreviation etc.(etc.), which stands for etcétera(et cetera) must be read in its full form, /etséteɾa/.

Symbols

Símbolos(symbols) are internationally accepted standard abbreviations of units of measure, chemical elements, currencies, points of the compass, etc. For example: hathat stands for hectárea(hectare), Agthat stands for plata(silver), EURthat stands for euro(euro), Sthat stands for sur(south).

Symbols may begin with a lowercase or uppercase letter. For example, minthat stands for minuto(minute), or Mgthat stands for magnesio(magnesium).

In Spanish, symbols don’t end with a period or any other punctuation mark or sign. This makes them different from ordinary abbreviations. Compare, for example, sthe symbol for segundo(second) with s.(c.), the abbreviation of siglo(century).

Just like abbreviations, symbols aren't pronounced as they are written. The full word is uttered instead.

Finally, like abbreviations, symbols can stand for a single word or a group of words. For example: ºCstands for grado centígradoor grado Celsius(degree centigrade, degree Celsius).

Acronyms

Acronyms are the abbreviated form of a group of words. An acronym is formed with the initials of those words. Many of them are proper nouns, such as names of institutions or corporations, for example: UNAMwhich stands for Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. However, sometimes acronyms are common nouns, for example: ONG(NGO) that stands for organización no gubernamental(non-governmental organization).

In Spanish, if the acronym cannot be read as a word and has to be spelled out, it is called a sigla, for example, FMI(IMF) that stands for Fondo Monetario Internacional(International Monetary Fund). FMI is pronounced /éfe-éme-í/.

If the acronym can actually be read as a word, it is called an acrónimo. For example: OTAN(NATO) which stands for Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte(North Atlantic Treaty Organization). OTAN is pronounced /ótan/ or /otán/.

Acronyms are written with uppercase letters, no spaces, and no periods. For example: UCI(ICU), which stands for unidad de cuidados intensivos(intensive care unit) or UNICEF, which stands for United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.

When Spanish acronyms can be read as normal words, they sometimes become ordinary words! In that case, they are written with lowercase letters. One example is sida(AIDS), which comes from the acronym of síndrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida(acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Note that if they are proper nouns, they must be capitalized. For example, you may see Unicefwritten with just a capital U instead of the form with all capital letters.

Apocopes

An apócope(apocope) is an alternative shortened form of a word that is used in certain grammatical contexts. For example, the adjective primeris used instead of primero(first) before masculine singular nouns.

Apocopes are formed through the loss of one or more letters at the end of the word. For example, the adjective terceris used instead of tercero(third) before masculine singular nouns, and the adjective sanis used instead of santo(Saint) before names of male saints, except Santo Domingoand Santo Tomás.

A special type of apocope called an acortamientooccurs when one or more syllables are dropped from the word. In this case, the use of the shortened form is not limited to specific grammatical contexts like the others. It is simply an informal or colloquial replacement for the full form. This is most often heard in speech. For example, micro(mike) is used colloquially instead of micrófono(microphone), and subteis used informally in Argentina instead of subterráneo(subway).

Popular Speech Shortenings

There are a few apocopes of very common words that are pronounced and written in informal Spanish as monosyllabic words. These popular apocopes include na, pa, and to, that stand for nada(nothing), para(for), and todo(all). You may find these words written with an apostrophe at the end, but spelling experts advise against it.

Blends

Some words in Spanish are what linguists call compuestos(blends). These are words formed by the combination of two or more words that form an expression, a set phrase, or a term. For example, the term fin de semana(weekend) is often shortened in colloquial Spanish to finde.

Sometimes these shortened forms are created by dropping full words. We can see this in words like finde, where the word semana is dropped altogether. However, blends may also consist in the dropping of syllables. One example is the word porfa, which is an informal shortening of por favor(please).

Occasionally, one or more letters or sounds may change, as in porfi(please), a variant of porfa.

Contractions Without an Apostrophe

In Spanish, a contracción(contraction) is a word derived from the combination of two words.

There are only two Spanish contractions that are written sin apóstrofo(without an apostrophe). These are: al, formed by the combination of the preposition aand the article el, and del, which comes from the combination of the preposition deand the article el.

These two contractions are always used, both in writing and pronunciation, whenever the two words appear together. There is only one exception in writing, which occurs when the article is capitalized. For example, the contraction al is not used when writing a phrase like ir a El Cairo(go to Cairo), although native speakers actually pronounce the contraction when uttering the phrase, /iɾ al káiɾo/.

Contractions With an Apostrophe

In informal Spanish, the dropping of sounds at the end of one word and the beginning of the next word is reflected in writing with an apostrophe. For example, it is quite common in colloquial speech to pronounce the sequence para elas pal, which you may see written as pa’l.

Remember that you do not use an apostrophe with the informal apocopes na, pa, and to unless they are part of a contraction!

Nicknames

In informal Spanish, many names have an alternative shortened form, such as Cris(Chris), which stands for Cristina(Christine), or Edu(Ed, Ted), which stands for Eduardo(Edward).

Sometimes, these alternative forms involve not just shortening the full form, but also altering its spelling. This happens with Merche, which stands for Mercedes. At times, the alternative form of a name is completely different. For example, the standard nickname for José(Joseph) is Pepe(Joe).

Elisions

Spanish words may sometimes be shortened when pronounced, although their written form remains intact. When one or more of the sounds in a word are omitted in speech, linguists call it an elisión(elision).

Elisions in Spanish are often associated with dialectal or colloquial variations. For example, some native speakers soften or lose the pronunciation of the s at the end of a syllable that's followed by a consonant, so you may hear them utter a word like asco(disgust) as /áhko/ or even /áko/. However, they will keep writing asco despite their pronunciation.

Examples

Here’s a table containing some common shortenings, their full forms, and their translations:

Shortening	Full Form	Translation	Type
admón.	administración	admin	Abbreviation
aprox.	aproximadamente	approx.	Abbreviation
avda.	avenida	ave.	Abbreviation
c/c	cuenta corriente	CA	Abbreviation
Cía.	compañía	Co.	Abbreviation
d. de C.	después de Cristo	AD	Abbreviation
EE. UU.	Estados Unidos	USA, US	Abbreviation
incl.	incluido	incl.	Abbreviation
JJ. OO.	Juegos Olímpicos	Olympic Games	Abbreviation
máx.	máximo	max	Abbreviation
mín.	mínimo	min	Abbreviation
núm.	número	No.	Abbreviation
pág.	página	p.	Abbreviation
p. ej.	por ejemplo	e.g.	Abbreviation
pza.	plaza	sq.	Abbreviation
RR. HH.	recursos humanos	HR	Abbreviation
Sra.	señora	Ms., Mrs.	Abbreviation
tel.	teléfono	tel.	Abbreviation
Ud.	usted	you	Abbreviation
cm	centímetro	cm	Symbol
CV	caballos de vapor	HP	Symbol
E	este	E	Symbol
GB	gigabyte	GB	Symbol
kg	kilogramo	kg	Symbol
km	kilómetro	km	Symbol
mm	milímetro	mm	Symbol
N	norte	N	Symbol
O	oeste- oxígeno	W - O	Symbol
t	tonelada	t	Symbol
BCE	Banco Central Europeo	ECB	Acronym
DIU	dispositivo intrauterino	IUD	Acronym
IPC	índice de precios al consumo	CPI	Acronym
IVA	impuesto sobre el valor añadido	VAT, sales tax	Acronym
OPA	oferta pública de adquisición	takeover bid	Acronym
PIB	producto interior bruto	GDP	Acronym
UE	Unión Europea	EU	Acronym
OMS	Organización Mundial de la Salud	WHO	Acronym
TAC	tomografía axial computarizada	CAT scan	Acronym
algún	alguno	some, any	Normal Apocope
buen	bueno	good	Normal Apocope
cualquier	cualquiera	any	Normal Apocope
gran	grande	large, great	Normal Apocope
mal	malo	bad	Normal Apocope
ningún	ninguno	none of, any	Normal Apocope
un	uno	a, an	Normal Apocope
auto	automóvil	car	Special Apocope
bici	bicicleta	bike	Special Apocope
bus	autobús	bus	Special Apocope
chelo	violonchelo	cello	Special Apocope
corto	cortometraje	short (film)	Special Apocope
fisio	fisioterapeuta	PT, physical therapist	Special Apocope
hetero	heterosexual	hetero	Special Apocope
porsiaca	por si acaso	just in case	Blend
prepa	escuela preparatoria	high school	Blend
quihubo	qué hubo	What’s up?	Blend