Month: April 2023

Categories
Spanish as a language

8 Examples of Acronyms in Spanish & Their Meaning

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8 Ejemplos de Acrónimos en Español y su Concepto | iScribo

Nowadays it is trendy to abbreviate when writing, well, this has been around all our lives! What does ‘acronyms’ mean in Spanish? Believe it or not, Spanish acronyms are group of words that can be read naturally syllable by syllable. For example:

1. ONU: /ó-nu/, acronym for ‘Organización de las Naciones Unidas’ (United Nations).

The rule says also that when two or more words are put together to form a single word, it is an acronym.

If you want to know what the difference between acronyms and abbreviations is, read on. iScribo helps you to clarify the aspects of grammar that, at first glance, may seem more complicated for all of us.

Difference Between Acronyms and Abbreviations

The difference between acronyms and initialisms (siglas) is simple. What are siglas? Siglas in Spanish are linguistic signs formed, as a general rule, by the initial letters of the terms they express. For example, BCE for ‘Banco Central Europeo’ (European Central Bank).

Sometimes, acronyms and siglas can share functions and designate a word equally, as in the case above explained of the ONU.

But what is the difference between abbreviations and acronyms? Now that we are clear on the concepts of acronyms and siglas, we will explain the concept of abbreviations. Abbreviations are one or more letters used to represent a word briefly, for example, ‘tel.’ for ‘teléfono’ (telephone).

Examples of Acronyms in Spanish

There are different Spanish acronyms, for example, those that function as siglas or those that join several words without having to be siglas. Here are some examples:

2. Docudrama: from ‘documental’ and ‘drama.’

3. Fundéu: Of course, we couldn’t leave the ‘Fundación del Español Urgente’ out of this article.

4. Euríbor: ‘Tipo europeo de oferta interbancaria.’ This acronym is formed from the English interbank offered rate. As you can see, there are acronyms that follow a very peculiar formation.

5. Ovni: ‘Objeto volador/volante no identificado’ (Unidentified flying object, UFO.)

6. Láser: ‘Amplificación de luz mediante emisión inducida de radiación’. As with number four on this list, it is “borrowed” from English. It stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

7. RAE: of course, our favourite institution, the ‘Real Academia de la Lengua Española’, is both an acronym and a sigla.

8. Unesco: ‘Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura’ (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).

iScribo and Spanish Acronyms

Our tool helps you to write acronyms properly, as well as other grammatical and spelling aspects in Spanish. Also, we always recommend to know the rules, as there are many things you need to learn about acronyms: are they capitalised, lowercase, italicised, etc.? It’s a whole world! Tell us in the comments how you deal with acronyms, siglas and abbreviations. Write us some examples too, what are you waiting for?

Categories
Writing in Spanish

The Great Impact of Social Media on Language

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El Impacto de las Redes Sociales en el Lenguaje | iScribo

Using language in a certain way positions us in society. Our knowledge of language helps us to express ourselves in a more or less informal register depending on the context in which we find ourselves.

Besides, the use of language in social media is able to shape the way we think about public figures, from singers and actors to politicians, and helps us to form a real image of them that once could be considered more or less idyllic.

The impact of social media on language and the way we write speak volumes about us. Misspellings or writing with abbreviations more than we should are part of social media slang. Find out today with iScribo how we use language where people see it most.

The Importance of Language in Social Media

The capacity of social media to modify language is immense. The new generations use Internet channels to express colloquial Spanish, which does not always mean an enrichment of the language, but also paves the way for the expansion of unnecessary foreignisms or grammatical incorrectness.

One of the negative effects of social media on language is the attention deficit: how many times do people ask unnecessary questions that are written and clarified in the post itself?

But it’s not all negative, language has found a way to propagate the good use of it, and we can find that example in the way the RAE and Fundéu reach out to their followers through their social media channels. After all, the Internet and modern media are an opportunity to spread the good use of the Spanish language to the whole world.

Evolution of Language in Social Media

Can you imagine Cervantes using emojis? Here is an example of how language has evolved thanks to the Internet. Some people have even had the brilliant idea – and the time, it must be said – to express sayings in Spanish with emojis, we have chosen one, just for fun:

🐴🎁🚫👁️🦷. Do you know what it means? We’ll reveal it to you later.

Social media has also changed the way we express ourselves, now we are more concise. The restriction of characters and the need to attract readers’ attention means that the speech is short, clear and concise. Where we write normally is on the computer and where we publish our thoughts the most is on social media, and we do transfer this feeling to our daily lives. Baroque is more than ever part of the past! Thanks to social networks, simple language is in vogue.

Benefits of Social Media in Language Learning

Now, let’s talk about the evolution of vocabulary. Did you know that a lot of words have been created due to the influence of social media? The acceptance and formation of new words is a fact.

Here are some examples: tuitear, retuitear, tuit, tuitero, etc., (tweet, retweet, twitter), arrobar (press at), favear (fav), googlear (google something) or wasapear (send a WhatsApp). However, not all of them are related to applications and the companies that manage social media, but there are many others such as bitcoin (bitcoin), bot, ciberacoso (cyberbullying), ciberdelincuencia (cybercrime), criptomoneda (cryptocurrency), geolocalizar (geolocate), webinario (webinar), cortapegar (cut and paste) o copiapega (copy and paste), all of them accepted by the RAE.

What about the pandemic words? If it were not for social media, minority words in some Spanish-speaking countries such as cubrebocas, hisopado or nasobuco (they all mean ‘face mask’) would not have reached us.

This is the new language of the 21st century, and of course, social media and the Internet are responsible for it. We are enriching the language!

iScribo on Social Media

iScribo understands the importance of language in social media. That’s why we use our online channels to teach you the good use of written Spanish and, with our tool, we help you to improve your written comprehension.

Have you already visited our Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram channels? In addition to this blog, we use them to help you learn Spanish tips and interact with other users who have the same purpose and goal as you: to write properly in Spanish. By the way, the saying above is “A caballo regalado, no le mirres el diente” (don’t look a gift horse in the mouth), have you guessed it? Tell us in the comments.

Categories
IA and iScribo

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Languages

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El Auge de la Inteligencia Artificial en Idiomas | iScribo

The growth of artificial intelligence is a fact year after year. The incorporation of algorithms that improve our lives is a reality, so it is more than likely that we will continue to witness the power of artificial intelligence.

Since childhood, we learn that we must choose between science and arts, but with the development of artificial intelligence, we realise that nowadays we don’t need to choose between one field or the other, but we can combine them. After all, everything is constantly evolving, from society to languages and technology.

Why is artificial intelligence the future? If you wonder how artificial intelligence has developed over the years, this article is for you.

What is Artificial Intelligence in Linguistics?

You may wonder what the relationship between linguistics and artificial intelligence is. Actually, if you think about it, it is very simple: AI uses NLP (natural language processing), which is a field of applied linguistics, as it studies natural language interaction between machines and people. Do you know a clear example where AI and linguistics are perfectly combined? In virtual voice assistants! From the interactive speaker you use every day at home to the directions you listen to in your car’s navigator.

In fact, it is human beings who teach algorithms to machines, therefore, behind the development of technology and AI there will always be human interaction. Phew!

Linguistics, as the science of language, is the key of science for machines to understand humans and vice versa. Amazing, isn’t it? And you can pair this discipline with many others!

Artificial Intelligence and Education

We applied artificial intelligence in everyday education without you even realising it. From a virtual whiteboard in a school to the Internet positioning of educational institutions and companies.

It’s a fact, artificial intelligence improves access to education and facilitates learning. Not only does it reduce repetitive learning tasks, but it will always be ready to teach us faster or even personalised methods for each one of us.

By using AI in education, it is possible to create virtual tutorials, identify new fields of learning and implement digital campuses available to everyone from anywhere. And these are only a few examples of what AI can do for us.

However, UNESCO warns us: artificial intelligence applied to education still faces many challenges that remain to be solved, so the development of this field still needs significant improvements.

Artificial Intelligence in Languages

Surely learning a language or improving a language you already know is one of your New Year’s resolutions (every year…), right? Likewise, companies are increasingly valuing the knowledge and mastery of a second – or third – language.

These and other reasons may be the behind the rise of artificial intelligence in languages, and this is a real topic. From machine translators to language learning applications, it is a booming area.

There are many examples where you can see how science and arts work beautifully in harmony, such as chatbots, which are able to adapt to the level of each user to help them learn languages. We also rely on smartphones and their integrated artificial intelligence that allow you to communicate in a very decent way in a multitude of languages (and that’s why they are smart).

To sum up, artificial intelligence is your first ally when it comes to overcoming language barriers while learning languages, travelling or communicating with foreigners.

Use AI to Benefit Yourself

Why is artificial intelligence the future? When you think about it, almost everything these days is related to technology, so it’s safe to say that we will continue to see many artificial intelligence breakthroughs in the years to come. As an industry that is growing and evolving by leaps and bounds, we look forward to the wonders it has to offer. The rise of artificial intelligence in languages is real! Did you know that iScribo is powered by artificial intelligence? Our grammar and orthographical checker corrects your Spanish while you write and it is in continuous development. Try it out and let us know how it works for you in the comments.

Categories
Writing in Spanish

Rules for Forming the Plurals of Words in Spanish

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Las Reglas de Formación del Plural en Español | iScribo

The formation of the plural in Spanish follows a basic rule which consists of adding an -s to the end of the word:

casa – casas (house)

gato – gatos (cat)

Nevertheless, there are words which, due to their formation, follow other rules for plurals in Spanish. We are talking about the words ending in -s, -y or -z. Continue reading to learn them.

Plurals of Words Ending in S or X

The rules for forming the plurals depend on the length of the word:

1. If the word is monosyllabic or polysyllabic but acute, add -es:

vals – valses (waltz)

inglés – ingleses (English)

2. If it is not a polysyllabic acute word, the plural is invariable:

crisis – crisis (crisis)

pasapurés – pasapurés (food processor)

Rule for Plurals Ending in Y

Words ending in -y are very frequent in Spanish. There are 3 rules of the plural in Spanish for these kinds of words:

1. If -y is preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by adding -es. Here, you can see that the -y performes the role of a consonant:

buey – bueyes (ox)

ley – leyes (law)

2. There is, of course, one exception. These are the foreign words that we have incorporated into the Spanish vocabulary repertoire. For these words, we transform the -y into -i and add the -s at the end as the -y remains as a vowel:

jersey – jerséis (jumper)

gay – gais (gay)

3. Today is your lucky day! There are some words that allow the formation of both plurals, so there is no possibility for you to be mistaken:

guirigay – guirigáis/guirigayes (noise, chaos)

estay – estáis/estayes (backstay)

What happens if the -y is preceded by a consonant? These are foreign words that do have an adapted spelling in Spanish, so their plural formation follows the basic rules of the plural in Spanish:

dandi – dandis (dandy)

ferri – ferris (ferry)

Plural of Words Ending in Z

1. If the -z is preceded by a vowel, it changes to -c and -es is added:

cáliz – cálices (goblet)

2. Foreign words also follow the same rule (so this is an easy one!):

interfaz – interfaces (interface)

The RAE and the Basic Rules for Forming the Plurals

The rules for forming the plurals are clear and concise, the only thing you have to do is to learn them so that you never make a mistake. As always, the best way to know them is to check the RAE channels.      Another way to cultivate yourself is to write non-stop in a Spanish spelling and grammar checker to learn in real time while you practice. iScribo is here to help you, have you tried it yet? Which words are more difficult for you when it comes to practising the formation of the plural in Spanish? Let us know in the comments.

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