Parents complain nowadays that they cannot understand their teens' slang because of the many abbreviations they use while texting. But Germans have a long established tradition of abbreviations. Here are our favorites.
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Best German abbreviations from AA to zZ.
Abbreviations are everywhere in the German language. This list might confuse you more than it will help you - but at least we've warned you.
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When AA stands for abbreviation affection
Germans love abbreviations, so you better get used to them if you want to learn the language and be able to decipher official documents. In many cases, the same letters can designate very different things. AA is not just the acronym for Alcoholics Anonymous but also for the "Auswärtiges Amt" (Foreign Office, see above), whereas a.A. means "auf Anfrage" (provided on request).
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Feel free to use 'fr'
At some point, Germans really needed to shorten the long word "frei" (free): It can thus be written as "fr." - saving a grand total of one space, as one letter is replaced by the period. "Fr." also stands for "Frau" (Mrs.) and "Freitag" (Friday). Double that up and you get "Frfr." for "Freifrau" (Baroness). But don't get confused: The word "für" (for) is conveniently shortened to a single f.
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It said something like 'gesch'
Understanding them all is like learning a whole new language: "gesch." means "geschieden" (divorced), but "ges.gesch." stands for the completely unrelated "gesetzlich geschützt" (patented); "geschr." abridges the word "geschrieben" (written); whereas "geschl." shortens "geschlossen" (closed). Whoever came up with that one forgot a way shorter word for "closed" already existed: "zu."
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KfzPflVV?
It looks like something from a speech bubble in a cartoon, but German bureaucracy is filled with mean abbreviations. This one stands for "Kraftfahrzeug-Pflichtversicherungsverordnung," the regulations surrounding the obligatory insurance of a car. Whether shortened or not, it just can't be simple. After all, cars are serious business in Germany!
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LG, those loving greetings
"LG" stands for "Landgericht" (District Court) but you'll find those two letters more regularly at the end of an email, as the abbreviation is also used for "Liebe Grüsse." This common way to close a message to friends literally translates as "loving regards," but is not reserved for intimate correspondence. "MfG" ("Mit freundlichen Grüssen," with friendly regards) is much more formal.
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M&M's are not just for candies
Notice that the capitalization of abbreviations follows the same rules used when the words are spelled out. So "m.M." or "m.M.n." means "meiner Meinung" and "meiner Meinung nach" (in my opinion), while a simple "mm" refers to millimeter in German, just like in English.
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'O' now I get it!
If the sun sets in the West, where does the moon disappear? A big "O" refers to "Ost" (east). A small "o." can mean "ohne" (without), "oben" (above) as well as "oder" (or) - though "od." can alternatively be used in this last case, too. Add an umlaut to that letter, and you get "ö." which means "öffentlich" (public). Easy.
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Go 'S' and see
You might need long holidays in a warm country with lots of books to further study these abbreviations. "S" is used for "Süd" (south). With an extra period, "S." stands for "Seite" (page) and a small "s." means "siehe" (see). See?
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That's 'SO' German
These will make you dizzy: "So" refers to "Sonntag" (Sunday), but "SO" is another cardinal point "Südost" (south-east). The abbreviation "s.o." stands for "siehe oben" (see above) while the popular "sog." is used for the expression "sogenannt" (so-called). So so.
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An abbreviation is like a bad haircut
To give you a break from all those pairs of abbreviations, here's a classic one: "Vokuhila" comes from "vorne kurz hinten lang" (short in the front and long in the back), a popular hairstyle in the 80s. It's a good example of how many German abbreviations are formed: using the first two letters of each word.
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Get your zzz's
To top it off, here's another versatile letter in the world of German abbreviations: "Z." can either be a "Zahl" (number) or a "Zeile" (line). A small "z." shortens another very long word, "zu" - which means in this case "to" or "at." This little "z." regularly introduces expressions like "z.B." ("zum Beispiel" - for example), "z..Z." ("zur Zeit" - at present) and many more. Are you snoring now?
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The German language is renowned for its extra long words, which are very often comprised of several words glued together. Germans have found a way to deal with the wordy problem by creating "Abkürzungen" - abbreviations.
A typical way of creating these abbreviations is to combine the first two letters of each word. For example, the name Haribo, Germany's famous brand of gummy bears, comes from the name of the creator the candy, Hans Riegel, and the place it was originally created, Bonn. Similarly, supermarket chain Aldi was founded by the Albrecht family and its name is derived from Albrecht Discount.
This process happens so often in German that some words even integrate the language as a word in itself, as people forget they were initially an abbreviation.
The word Gestapo, the Nazi's secret police, derives from "Geheime Staatspolizei" and the common name for the former East German repressive police was Stasi, which comes from "Staatssicherheit" (State Security). The German anti-Islam group "PEGIDA" actually stands for "Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes" (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident).
But they're not all negative or historically weighted. In many German offices, workers face WoKos ("Wochenkonferenz," weekly conference) and Telkos (Telefonkonferenz, telephone conference).
Click through the gallery above to discover a small selection of the huge, confusing world of German abbreviations.
