[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by shashanka

..where typos are routinely overlooked and where graceful grammar and prose have taken the back seat.

Not only has it taken a back seat, you sometimes cannot even get the message across as proper English is increasingly not understood. Nowadays, if I want to communicate effectively, I water down my language so that it sort of (not too much though) conforms to the average Indian's English.

The sad part of all this is that a command of English is no longer regarded as a must-have skill set by most probably because the majority do not possess it and the rest dilute their language if they are to be understood.

Even the Brits do not have as high a standard of English as they did sometime ago apparent in current interactions that I have with them. The absolute mastery over the written word that some of them did possess is no longer to be seen.

Just a generation ago most folks appreciated a command of English aa a highly valued skillset. Not anymore.

This thread would be one of the last vestiges to that fast disappearing school of thought.

Sadly so.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Swissknife, few is always greater than zero. Apart from that I agree.

All are American-influenced now. Indian English looks increasingly to America... But so does British English!

What's wrong with American English? Nothing! It is every bit as good as it's ancestor. Apart from certain specific differences, it is the same language, with the same grammar, spoken and written in the same way. I cannot "geolocate" many Americans, online, by their writing. The trouble is that the seen-as-trendy, or just plain bad, habits tend to travel.

Language does not evolve, it degrades. We're stuck with that!

[shashanka]

I guess I have a mild allergy to things American - starting with the term "The American Dream" and American cars and of course American English. I find the language deeply attached to acronyms and insider jargon. Both of which I find deplorable. The English do it too, of course, but often with clear tongue-in-cheek intent (as in NGO & QUANGO in the "Yes Minister" TV series & book). With sincere apologies to the Yank-ophiles amongst us!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Do be careful with that word!

A lot of Americans misuse the word acronym, and that has traveled far. You will find it misused on this forum as often as not. Clue: NGO is not an acronym!

Yes, Minister comes from a gentler age. I wonder what it would look like updated to the age of fake news!

[binand]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Yes, Minister comes from a gentler age. I wonder what it would look like updated to the age of fake news!

Bookmark time.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...n-sir-humphrey

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

...few is always greater than zero.

Shouldn't 'few' be greater than one?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Shouldn't 'few' be greater than one?

I had the same thought myself after posting. Yes, I think it should.

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by samaspire

Shouldn't 'few' be greater than one?

In fact, shouldn't it be greater than two?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by shashanka

...as in NGO & QUANGO...

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Clue: NGO is not an acronym!

Folks, do bear with the less literate. What is a QUANGO? - a four legged NGO, perhaps? And why do you say NGO is not an abbreviation.? My gratitude for your answers.

[Thad E Ginathom]

A QUANGO is, if I remember right, a quasi NGO. Or something like that, I may be wrong, but I think it was an exercise in British politicians putting power into the hands of their non-elected friends. Let's not go there

why do you say NGO is not an abbreviation?

I never said that! It certainly is, but it is certainly not an acronym (whereas quango is both)

Originally Posted by anupmathur

In fact, shouldn't [a few] be greater than two?

It makes sense.

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

A QUANGO is, if I remember right, a quasi NGO. Or something like that, I may be wrong, but I think it was an exercise in British politicians putting power into the hands of their non-elected friends. Let's not go there

I never said that! It certainly is, but it is certainly not an acronym (whereas quango is both)

Touche`- I stand corrected! And I wonder how QUANGO did not find its way here, bearing in mind that our country is the ultimate happy hunting ground for NGOs!

[arunphilip]

An abbreviation is a shortening of a phrase into a shorter form. The word/phrase is "abbreviated". Apart from the common examples, it also includes shortenings like "Dr" for "Doctor" or "Rd" for "Road". An abbreviation is a superset of the next two.

An initialism is when the shortening is done by taking the initial letter/letters of a phrase. These are pronounced as individual letters - e.g. FBI, CBI.

When an initialism is pronounced as a single word, then it is an acronym - e.g. NATO, radar, sonar, laser (the last three have entered common usage to such a great extent that they aren't even spelt with capital letters).

The clunkiness of spelling out initialisms as the phrase grows in length is why acronyms are popular. For example, WWII buffs might recognize that Gestapo is actually Geheime Staatspolizei.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

..it was an exercise in British politicians putting power into the hands of their non-elected friends. Let's not go there

Sounds like something our jokers do.

I never said that! It certainly is, but it is certainly not an acronym (whereas quango is both)

I am usually confused between abbreviations and acronyms. So AIDS or NASA is an acronym. But POW? or FBI? Anyway, in life, it helps best to be a little confused. Adds spice.

[agambhandari]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I am usually confused between abbreviations and acronyms. So AIDS or NASA is an acronym. But POW? or FBI? Anyway, in life, it helps best to be a little confused. Adds spice.

Acronym is an abbreviation which can be spoken as a word itself, and not as different alphabets.

For us:Petrolheads; VTEC and VANOS are acronyms
But VVTi, DDiS isn't

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

An abbreviation ...

An initialism ...

When an initialism is pronounced as a single word, then it is an acronym ...

Initialism is a new[ish] word to me. I don't recall it from my childhood. We had abbreviations, some of which are acronyms, or to put it a different way, acronyms are a special case of abbreviation. Initialism is not in my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary of 1964, which it ought to be even if it was an obscure word at that time. According to Merriam Webster (online) it is older than acronym, which dates from 1940s. But guess what! My SOED also does not list the word acronym! True, that word would have been very young way back then. In fact, according to google define, it dates only to the 1950s.

Back then, in, say, the early sixties, acronym was a bit of a nerdy word. We showed off that we knew that radar and laser were acronyms!

Merriam Webster claims that research shows acronym being used for abbreviations that do not make words. Well, of course it does: fewer and fewer people know its meaning!

I suspect that initialism is an American, err, ism. I think it is a bit ugly, but, you pays your money and takes your choice; at least it is not plain wrong!