ABSTRACT
This is the shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase. Frequently used abbreviations or contractions include don’t (do not), can’t (can not) and haven’t (have not). Children need careful teaching about the difference between possessive apostrophes and those used to indicate contraction. Sometimes the abbreviation becomes a word in its own right, for example pub, plane or fridge, and in these cases the apostrophe has been dropped. Other abbreviations are acronyms like SAT (standard assessment test) andNATE (theNational Association for the Teaching of English). Useful abbreviations of Latin terms include: e.g. for example (exempli gratia); i.e. that is (id est); etc. and so on (et cetera); N.B. note especially (nota bene). The best account of ‘abbreviation’ known to me is in McArthur’s Oxford Companion.
