Poll: Do you have trouble dealing with acronyms in your work? Uwekaji wa uzi: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you have trouble dealing with acronyms in your work?".
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| | | | | Other (all the time, but they don't drive me crazy) | Nov 16, 2025 |
Some clients just love coining them. As a result, I am constantly coming up against new acronyms and abbreviations. That's why I have been building a glossary for over 30 years, gleaned in EU documents (EU is a prolific coiner), magazines and newspapers, as well as here (Kudoz), which by now is 702 pages long...
| | | | Lingua 5B 
Bosnyia na Hezegovina
Local time: 07:02
Kiingereza hadi Kifaransa
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I forgot, I don’t work much in translation these days.
| | | | Daryo
Local time: 06:02
Kiserbia hadi Kiingereza
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| Creating a shared reference sheet with team-defined abbreviations helps a lot | Nov 17, 2025 |
Yes, acronyms can definitely be tricky, especially in cross-department communication. I find creating a shared reference sheet with team-defined abbreviations helps a lot. For industry-specific terms (like NASA or GDPR), I keep a personal glossary. Don't hesitate to ask for clarification when something's unclear – "Can you explain what KPI means in this context?" is always better than guessing. Newcomers often struggle most, so offering to share your acronym cheat sheet can be a great team-bui... See more Yes, acronyms can definitely be tricky, especially in cross-department communication. I find creating a shared reference sheet with team-defined abbreviations helps a lot. For industry-specific terms (like NASA or GDPR), I keep a personal glossary. Don't hesitate to ask for clarification when something's unclear – "Can you explain what KPI means in this context?" is always better than guessing. Newcomers often struggle most, so offering to share your acronym cheat sheet can be a great team-building move. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Philip Lees
Ugiriki
Local time: 08:02
Kigriki hadi Kiingereza
I don't think the question means acronyms: I think it's asking about abbreviations.
An acronym is an abbreviation that is pronounced as if it were a single word, like NASA or UNESCO.
So BBC is not an acronym; nor is GDPR, nor is EU. Other non-acronyms: GDP, ECG (or EKG), PDF, NPR, CNN, and so on.
I meet very few acronyms in my work, but quite a lot of abbreviations, and I have a blind spot for them. When I see one I don't know, it's as if my brain shuts dow... See more I don't think the question means acronyms: I think it's asking about abbreviations.
An acronym is an abbreviation that is pronounced as if it were a single word, like NASA or UNESCO.
So BBC is not an acronym; nor is GDPR, nor is EU. Other non-acronyms: GDP, ECG (or EKG), PDF, NPR, CNN, and so on.
I meet very few acronyms in my work, but quite a lot of abbreviations, and I have a blind spot for them. When I see one I don't know, it's as if my brain shuts down. If you look through my past questions on ProZ, you'll see that a high percentage of them are about abbreviations I was unable to decipher. Once I know what the letters stand for I can usually work out the translation.
When I was working in IT, a colleague once asked me my opinion of ERP.
"ERP?" I said. "That's effective refractory period. It's the part of the cardiac cycle in which the myocardium doesn't respond to electrical stimuli."
Needless to say, that's not what he meant.
Oh, and ERP is not an acronym. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gerard Barry
Ujerumani
Local time: 07:02
Kijerumani hadi Kiingereza
I used to translate for companies that had internal abbreviations and acronyms that nobody outside the company could realistically decipher. It was ridiculous to expect any translator to know what they meant.
| | | | Daryo
Local time: 06:02
Kiserbia hadi Kiingereza
+ ...
| Yes, it's a sensible approach, but ... | Nov 17, 2025 |
Gwyneth Chiu wrote:
Yes, acronyms can definitely be tricky, especially in cross-department communication. I find creating a shared reference sheet with team-defined abbreviations helps a lot. For industry-specific terms (like NASA or GDPR), I keep a personal glossary. Don't hesitate to ask for clarification when something's unclear – "Can you explain what KPI means in this context?" is always better than guessing. Newcomers often struggle most, so offering to share your acronym cheat sheet can be a great team-building move.
Yes, it's a sensible approach, but ... with the outsourcing craze (that's still refusing to go away decades later) you won’t find that many translators working as part of a team.
So, unfortunately it's a good practice - with only few places left where to put in practice!
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