Every language has many afkortingen (abbreviations)to make… well, everything shorter! But what means what? Below some valuable abbreviations of Dutch words and expressions!
An afkorting?! Shortcuts and abbreviations – making life easier and faster! (Image by garycycles at Flickr.com)
Alstublieft–a.u.b.(alsos.v.p.) – please
Afbeelding – afb. –picture
Aanstaande–a.s.– upcoming
Bijvoorbeeld– bijv.– for example
Circa – ca. –approximately
Door middel van–d.m.v.– by means of
Dat wil zeggen–d.w.z. – …which means
En andere – e.a.– and others
en dergelijke–e.d.– and the like
enzovoort – enz.– and so on
in opdracht van – i.o.v.– commissioned by
in plaats van – i.p.v. –in lieu of
in verband met – i.v.m. –in connection with
jongstleden – jl. –recently
m.a.w. – met andere woorden– in other words
m.b.t. – met betrekking tot– with regard to
m.i.v. – met ingang van– as of (e.g. a certain date)
m.n. – met name– in particular
m.u.v. – met uitzondering van– excluding
n.a.v. – naar aanleiding van– following (e.g. an event)
nr. – nummer –number
o.a. – onder andere(n)– including/among other(s)
p.p. – per persoon– per person
t.a.v. – ter attentie van– tothe attention of
t.b.v. – ten behoeve van–for the benefit of
t.n.v. – ter name van –in the name of
t.o.v. – ten opzichte van– in comparison to
vlg. – volgende– next
vnl. – voornamelijk– predominantly
z.o.z. – zie ommezijde– see overleaf
z.s.m. – zo spoedig mogelijk– ASAP (as soon as possible).
Now, these officialafkortingenare all nice and great, and you will see them in many places. But what about the more colloquial ones, the ones we use to tell how much we love our partner, the ones we use to just quickly write a message? In Dutch, many of these use Englishafkortingen, that everyone understands.
SMS– text. Well, yes.SMS’enmeans texting. Although, nowadays, people are more intoappen, which refers to sending a message via services likeWhatsapp.
hvj–hou van jou!– I love you!
w8– wacht– wait/hold on
ff– even– for a moment. This is used a lot, as for examplew8 ff, which means: hold on fora sec!
brb – be right back– be right back, or, as you would say in Dutch,ik ben er zo weer.
biw–ben ik weer –I am back again. This would be the message when you come back from abrb.
btw– by the way – by the way. Yes. Dutch use it too!
gtg –got to go – got to go. Yep, again.
There are endless of such Englishafkortingenthat are also used in Dutch. Very useful!
What kind of abbreviations do you use in your language?
