How do you translate abbreviations and acronyms?

by Target Language Translation Services

- November 23 2021

Normally, one of the most frequent problems that translators have to cope with is the translation of abbreviations or acronyms. Abbreviations and acronyms are shortened forms of words or phrases. An abbreviation is typically a shortened form of words utilized to represent the whole  while an acronym contains a set of initial letters from a phrase that usually form another word. Each one allows writers to make large blocks of text easier to read. Beware that both abbreviations and acronyms are typically considered informal and should be carefully considered before including them in more formal writings.

There's a great deal of overlap between abbreviations and acronyms. It's worth pointing out that an acronym is a type of abbreviation because acronyms are shortened forms of words and phrases.

Differences between abbreviations and acronyms

Abbreviations

As we know, an abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase, such as Mr. for Mister, or hr. for hour that is still said as the full word or words.

Tightening "December" to "Dec." is an abbreviation because "Dec." is simply a written shorthand for the full word. It's not an acronym since "Dec." isn't said as a word.

You may have wondered why some abbreviations, like those for ounce (oz) and pound (lb) use letters that aren't part of the original word. In these cases the abbreviations are based on older forms of the word.

Acronyms

An acronym, technically, must spell out another word. This is a good point of reference to help you distinguish between abbreviations and acronyms. Another good way to differentiate them is that acronyms don't just shorten words, they often simplify a long organization name, scientific term or idea.

Some acronyms create new words that are so commonly utilized, we forget they're actually a series of letters from a longer word or phrase. For instance, when we go scuba diving, we rarely consider the fact that scuba is an acronym of self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.

Then there are initialisms which lead to some confusion. Would you consider "VIP" to be an acronym? Technically, it's an initialism. Initialisms are a series of initial letters of words or a phrase that form an abbreviation but aren't pronounced as a word. We enunciate each letter, such as "rofl" and "BLT". Many consider initialisms to be a subset of acronyms-therefore whether you pronounce ASAP as a word or enunciate each letter, it's still an acronym-but be aware that others say it is another form of abbreviation.

How to translate abbreviations and acronyms

In general terms, there are some of the most important guidelines for the translation of abbreviations and acronyms.

Translation of abbreviations

Leave an abbreviations untranslated

If you aren’t sure, just leave an abbreviation untranslated. Even if you spend an hour researching an abbreviation, that doesn’t guarantee that your assumptions are correct. Translation in general doesn’t lend itself to guessing, and even more so with abbreviations.

Translate widely utilized abbreviations

--You should definitely translate an abbreviation which has a widely utilized equivalent in the target language. For example, if you are an English to Russian translator, you will translate these abbreviations:

WHO (World Health Organization) — ВОЗ

PVC (polyvinyl chloride) — ПВХ

--If an abbreviated term is widely utilized in the target language, but has no established abbreviation, it would be better to spell it out:

Head of HR — директор по управлению персоналом

--Some terms may be widely utilized in the target language, but their abbreviations are left untranslated nonetheless:

DNS (Domain Name System)

IP (Internet Protocol)

--When an abbreviation occurs in a text for the first time, it’s a good idea to spell it out in parentheses:

Автомобиль оснащен АБС (антиблокировочной системой).

Leave client-specific abbreviations untranslated

--If an abbreviation doesn’t have a widely used equivalent in the target language, it's normally untranslated. This kind of abbreviation is usually used by a client internally in their company. The first reason to leave such abbreviations untranslated is that a translation won’t make much sense to anyone, including employees of the company itself, because its staff is used to the original abbreviation. The second reason is the high probability that in other publications, these abbreviations will be left untranslated. Examples of such publications include catalogs, images, and labels. If you translate them in your text, your translations will likely become inconsistent with other publications down the road.

--In theory, you may ask your client to confirm whether they want the abbreviations translated, and if yes, explain those abbreviations. In practice, however, clients usually reply that abbreviations should not be translated.

--When this type of abbreviation occurs in the text for the first time, it’s a good idea to spell it out in parentheses, together with a translation. Don't forget to be sure about the meaning of the abbreviation:

English: This component is part of the SS.

Russian: Этот компонент входит в состав SS (Segmental System — сегментарная система).

Translation of acronyms

--Make acronym appear as it does in the source material

If there are particular acronyms that a client requests remain as they are in the source document, the first occurrence of the acronym will have a translation of the term definition in parentheses, but is then used “untranslated” throughout the rest of the document.

Occasionally, two different languages may use the same acronym. This can occur when:

The languages are related : “FDP” is the same in German (Freie Demokratische Partei) and English (Free Democratic Party)，

The initialism is coincidentally the same: “UNU” is the same in English (United Nation University) and French (Université des Nations Unies), or

A specialized field is dominated by a superstrate language: English is the lingua franca of science and medicine, so many terms like “MRI” or “CT” are used so commonly they need no translation in context.

--Change the acronym to a localized acronym

The acronym may contain the same letters in a different order: “AIDS” (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is translated as “SIDA” in Spanish (Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida).

In another scenario, the acronym may have different letters: “WHO” (World Health Organization) is translated as “OMS” in French (Organisation mondiale de la santé).

--Fully translate the acronym as there is no localized acronym

Thus, “POW” (Prisoners of War) is simply translated as les prisonniers de guerre in French.

Do you have your own best practices about translating abbreviations and acronyms to share? Contact the Target Language Translation team for more information about translations.

This article is reprinted from UNITED LANGUAGE GROUP, YourDictionary and Velior.

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