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?