Student worksheet
Add the rest of the alphabet to this table by putting letters with the same vowel sound together.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| A | B C | F | I | O | Q | R |
Check as a class. Then listen and write the acronyms you hear next to each number below
VW/ DIY/ JFK/ HQ/ GNP/ CIA/ R&D/ XL/ BBC/ PS/ EU/ FBI/ VDU
1 ___________ 2 __________ 3 _____________ 4 _____________
5 ___________ 6 ___________ 7 _____________ 8 _____________
9 ___________ 10 ___________ 11 ____________ 12 ____________
13 __________
Listen to conversations about these idioms to start checking your answers.
Fill in the missing words from the questions and the answers you heard used about the idioms above.
- “What does VW stand _____________________________________?” “Volkswagen”
- “And what does ‘Volkswagen’ mean?” “It translates ________________ ‘people’s car’”
- “What does GNP ___________________ for?” “I’m not exactly ___________________, but I think it comes __________________________________ the field of economics”
Ask and answer similar questions about the acronyms above, then about these:
MBA USA CV
a.m. p.m. VAT PLC
MD UN GDP APR
www HR
PTO PhD DC
Ask any questions you couldn’t answer to your teacher.
Do the same with acronyms from your field
Which of these acronyms can be said like words like “NATO” (/neito/)?
VIP OPEC WHO
CAD CAM EFTA IMF
LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) CEO
OECD PIN IT
Check as a class.
Teacher’s notes and answer key
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| A H J K | B C D E G P T V Z (American English= zee) | F L M N S X Z (British English= zed) | I Y | O | Q U W | R |
The first time they hear the acronyms, read out just the acronyms below in this order:
1. EU/ 2. FBI/ 3. HQ/ 4. GNP/ 5. VW/ 6. DIY/ 7. JFK/ 8. Ｒ&D/ 9. XL/ 10. BBC/ 11. PS/ 12. VDU/ 13. CIA
The second time they hear them, read out whole conversations about the acronyms like these:
- “What does VW stand for?” “Volkswagen”
- “And what does ‘Volkswagen’ mean?” “It translates as ‘people’s car’”
- “What does GNP stand for?” “I’m not exactly sure, but I think it comes from the field of economics”
EU= European Union / FBI= Federal Bureau of Investigation (Bureau means office) / HQ= headquarters (means the main office of a company) / GNP= Gross national product (Comes from economics) / VW/ DIY = Do it yourself (means making furniture and decorating your own house)/ JFK= John Fitzgerald Kennedy/ R&D = Research and development (means the department of a company that makes new products) / XL = extra large (comes from the fashion industry) / BBC= British Broadcasting Corporation (in British English, Corporation means a government owned business)/ PS = post scriptum (means after writing in Latin, is used to add extra information to the end of a letter)/ VDU = video display unit (means a monitor) / CIA = Central Intelligence Agency (connected to spying)
MBA (Masters of Business Administration) USA (United States of America) CV (Curriculum Vitae= Latin for list of my life = resume) a.m. (Ante Meridian, Latin for before noon), p.m. (Post meridian) VAT (value added tax, a 15% tax on purchases in the UK) PLC (Public Limited Company, a large UK company listed on the Stock Exchange) MD (Medical Doctor) UN (United Nations) GDP (Gross Domestic product, from economics) APR (Annual percentage rate, from banking) www (World Wide Web) HR (Human resources, a department of a company), PTO (Please turn over, to tell you there is more written on the other side of the page), PhD (Doctor of Philosophy, the highest qualification from a university) DC (District of Columbia, part of the full name of Washington DC)
Can be said as words: OPEC, CAD CAM, EFTA, LIBOR, PIN
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PDF for easy saving and printing:
Related pages
Abbreviations page (with link to acronyms page) – NEW LINK
Do we have an audio file here? :)
Nope, not a single audio file on the whole site…