Quirks of Japanese: Further Abbreviations, and More

ast time, we started on our trip through the more obscure or unexpected twists and turns of learning Japanese (but not the harder parts; the list of kanji is that way if that’s what you want) with an overview of some abbreviations. This time, we’ll pick up where we left off with one particular example, but we’re also going to be taking a look at bits and pieces of all sorts of other things that wouldn’t fill a full article by themselves.

In particular, last time, we touched on some katakana abbreviations that compress two words into one, usually the first few letters of each word. Katakana is loanwords practically all the way down, so you know some of these already, which I won’t be padding this article with. Instead, let’s go over some abbreviations that, while usually derived from English, only exist in Japanese. Here are a few examples, where I’ll be listing the Japanese, but also an English transliteration.

パソコン (pasokon): Personal computer. In recent years you’ll see PC as well, mostly in the context of shops that need to save sign space, but this is what people will actually say.

(Please see below for the rest)
リンク