Hello,

I wanted to share with you a short list of shortcuts and abbreviations in American English that you might encounter when communicating with Americans. Some are well-known, others are less known. Some are formal, while others less.

You’re welcome to add some of your own that are not mentioned below.

 Rd. = Road

St. = Street

Sq. = Square

S&H = Shipping and Handling

BTW = By The Way

LOL = Laughing Out Loud

EOD = End Of Day (Ex.: “This report will be ready by EOD.”)

MoM = Minutes of Meeting

TTYL = Talk To You Later

OOO = Out of Office

w/o = Without

Thx = Thanks

FYI = For Your Information

TBD = To Be Determined (usually about dates)

AI = Action Item

Wk = Week

w/e = Weekend

yr = Year

appt = Appointment

When writing formal or official letters or e-mails, it is important to avoid using words that sound fine when speaking, but are grammatically incorrect. For example:

Till (write “until”)

Gonna (write “going to”)

Wanna (write “want to”)

i (write “I”)

shouldda (write “should’ve”)

wouldda (write “would’ve”)

You’re welcome to add to this list as well.

I would love to hear about interesting or weird blunders you’ve had in English.

Good luck.

Mr. Miron Abramson

Add-Vantage

Miron Abramson is the founder and senior consultant of Add-Vantage, a company that supports people and organizations with their business interactions with international partners overseas. You can visit them on the web at http://addvantage.co.il, or contact Mr. Abramson at miron@addvantage.co.il.