#046 Improper or Redundant Abbreviations

We live in a world where lately no one has the time or patience to use complete sentences or even complete words for that matter. In some instances, yes, it makes sense to abbreviate either long words or long phrases into cute little phrases or acronyms that are more easily managed or are easier to print, display or read.

What I DO NOT have the patience for, however, is when people use an improper abbreviation or one that is redundant.

Congratulations! This is a long word. This word is often misspelled because there are just too many letters in it (whine) and people are lazy and would rather shorten it. Congrats! Ah, yes... much better. Just remember: it's congrats, not congrads. People make this mistake all the time and it completely pisses me off. I suspect this is the case because this word is often used with the word “graduate” when congratulating someone who has recently graduated from high school / college / etc. and people simply don’t pay attention, or they have seen it incorrectly abbreviated so many times before that they actually don’t know it should be a T instead of a D.


your and Congrads? Looks like college has paid off for SOME of us...


Et cetera: now there's a winner. The proper abbreviation is etc., not ect. Alternatively you can just use a phrase such as "and so on" or "and so forth" (or even a combination of the two!) instead of looking like an idiot and shortening it incorrectly. Trust me, you're only making YOURSELF look stupid.

On mailed invitations to events (yes, people actually still do this!), people will often print "Please RSVP" or "RSVP Please", which is completely redundant because répondez s'il vous plaît actually means PLEASE RESPOND. If you say please before or after RSVP, you’re actually saying please twice! Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the effort and the kindness, but saying please twice just isn’t necessary.

VIN or PIN: there is no need to say PIN number or VIN number because N is the abbreviation for number within that acronym!

Finally, when referring to a bank’s ATM, this acronym is short for automated teller machine. If you say ATM machine, once again, you’re being redundant. Quit wasting my time and yours.