Ich wollte meiner Frau deutsche Abkürzungen erklären. Ich kenne ziemlich viele, aber ich möchte wissen welche werden als Buchstaben gesprochen. ZB, (and that's not one of them) LKW, GmbH nutzen die Buchstaben. Mit "MfG," "usw," "zB" die ganzen Wörter werden ausgespocken. Ich hätte gern eine Liste von Abkürzungen, in denen nur die Buchstaben ausgesprochen sind.
H-H? Sonnst iregendjemand?

MfG
Rob

just because i wanna see if i lost all my german or not...but i think he want to explain to his wife the meaning of some abbreviation.

LKW= Landkraftwagen or truck
GmbH = Gesellschaft mit beschraenkter Haftueng or a Limited Liability Corp.
usw = und so weiter or ect.
z.B. = zum Beispiel or for example


Hope that helps ! Been a LONG time since my last German class

Oh yeah, the ae & ue should be umlauts in GmbH but I can't do them with this keyboard.

Seems it is time for you to start practicing your German skills

Robert says that there are a lot of abbreviations. Some of these are pronounced as single letters, like LKW (LastKraftWagen) which is pronounced as L K W. In English we could for instance take i.e. (short for latin id est meaning 'that is') which most pronounce as i e.
Other German abbreviations like zB, zum Beispiel (for example) is not pronounced z B, instead they fill in the whole expression, text contains zB, German readers say 'zum Beispiel'.
Roberts request/wish was for a comprehensive list of German abbreviations with a statement about which are pronounced as individual letters and which are replaced with the complete expression. GmBH for instance is pronounced as G M b H instead of 'Gesellschaft mit Beschissene Hosen', means Ltd by the way which reads 'limited' instead of L t d.
Lt for lieutenant is sometimes just l t and sometimes lieutenant, means stand-in by the way (stand-in for the captain of the company)

The interested (or masochistic) reader can start here:
https://de.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Kategorie:Abk%C3%BCrzung_(Deutsch)&pagefrom=A
Doesn't say a word about the pronounciation though, which is a bummer ....

Some more rules and descriptive information here but still not quite what Robert is looking for:
https://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/rechtschreibregeln/abkuerzungen

To make it worse there are some abbreviations which have become "words" themselves. Take the TÜV as example, it means Technischer Überwachungsverein (Association for Technical supervision, checks that technical products are safe and meet regulations, most Germans meet the TÜV when they get their car inspected). It is usually pronounced as tüf, not T Ü V and not the full name either.

There is also this which could test the sanity of most readers:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rindfleischetikettierungs%C3%BCberwachungsaufgaben%C3%BCbertragungsgesetz
It defines the abbreviations RflEttÜAÜG and RkReÜAÜG, it also mentions GrundVZÜV.
Don't know if the full word was pronounced or not ...

This link might actually contain a lead to an answer, could be useful with the first link above.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abk%C3%BCrzung
When the abbreviation is written with a dot/period it should be pronounced as a whole word. Note that various "subcultures" will set their own rules for their own specific abbreviations, Sd.Kfz. to take one example ....

/ Robin

Robin with all the due respect if instead of doing the sarcastic smart ass you explained to me where i was wrong it would have been more help ... no?...

my last lesson in German was 27 years ago then I used only the Swiss-german spoken for everyday life

anyway thanks

Normally used as the letters:

THW = Technisches Hilfswerk, germans national disaster aid service aka "Tausend Hilflose Wichte" (1000 helpless dwarfs) or "Trinken, Helfen, Weitersaufen" (Drink, Rescue, Continue Drinking)

RTW = Rettungswagen (Medical Emergency first response vehicle)
KTW = Kranken-Transport Wagen (Used for transporting sick people)

MTW = Manschafts-Transportwagen is a military or police personal carrier. Used in Germany for the M113 among others

PzH = Panzerhaubitze, self propelled Artillerie ie the PzH 2000

Many german TV/Radio stations are used letter bei letter. Many germans no longer know what they stand for:

ARD = Allgemeiner Rundfunk Deutschlands aka "Das Erste" since it was founded first of the west german networks

ZDF = Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second one), sometimes known as Zweites Entenhausener Fernsehen (Entenhausen is german "translation" for Duckburg)

WDR = West Deutscher Rundfunk
NDR = Nord " "
MDR = Mittel " "
RTL = Radio Télévision Luxembourg a privat TV station

AG = Aktion-Gesellschaft (corporation / public company)
KG = Kommandit-Gesellschaft (limited partnership)

SPS = Speicher Programierbare Steuerung (Memory programable controler)

MTU = Motoren und Turbinen Union

MBB = Messerschmidt Bölkow Blohm

AEG = Auspacken, Einstecken, Garantiefall (Uncrate, Plug in, Warranty Case) correctly Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (loosely General Electric/Electrical Engineering Corporation)

MAN = Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürenberg - if you need an overengineered Panzer call us


Some stuff that is spelled out in the US is also in german like

IBM
VGA
EGA
PDP


===============

And some the other way round (Used as words rather than letters)

LARS = Leichtes Artillerie Raketen System ist typically used like the male first name

MARS = Mittleres Artillerie Raketen System (the german version of the MLRS), spoken like the snack

Please accept my apologies for coming across as a smart-ass, it was not intentional. I am a smart-ass by the way but I try to keep it under wraps as much as possible

I spent 6 months in Zürich and Schwyzerdütsch is a little bit different compared to regular textbook German, to say the least ....
I wanted to set the record straight on Roberts question since you had missed the most important part of it
Tip: Try and get hold of some German books, not the high brow intellectual literature but more of the easy reader stuff. Reading a lot is a great way to learn a foreign language.
/ Robin

No worries mate.....but I already leave in a country were I can’ Speak my language and I read English book to try to improve ,read also German books is little bit to much,I understood also part of the rest but to technical to try to give a answer also my German is a mix of hochdeuch from school and from real life Switzerdeuch mostly the Zurich one

I don't get too many chances to use German anymore. But here's a way how I don't totally loose it.
https://mkefilm.org/festival-programs/das-kino

Afterwards we will go across the street to a bar, Von Trier's have a couple of the new HB-Freising fest beers and discuss the movies "auf Milwaukee deutsch" a dialect that if you don't know the German word you use the English one

Prost !

I Know a Little German

Couldn't resist.


Randy

Another Abkuerzung spoken per letters:
BMW(Be Em We)

Ah! Baader-Meinhofs Wagen!

Bring Mich Werkstatt - Take me to the repair shop

Bei Mercedes Weggeworfen - Thrown away at Mercedes

Oh and

VW (few say Volkswagen to the producer of mobility aids from Wolfsburg)

NSU (The manufacturer of among others the Kettenkrad)

RAF - Both the Royal Air Beagles and the "Wannabe Terrorists" from the 70s (Rote Armee Fraktion - Red Army Faction)

EEG = electroencephalogram (1)

EKG = electrokardiogramm

CT = computer tomography (or the name of the german "if I grow uo I wanna be like BYTE" computer magazin)

CAD (Computer aided design) is a "sometimes". I have heard it spelled out and used as a word with a K-Sound (KAT) and used both

USB = Useless er universal serial bus

CF = Compact Flash (Card)