Acronym, CAN, CDN, CAD

Question

Hello~I want to know what these acronym refer to, CAN, CDN and CAD.The only thing I know is that these words are related to Canada.Is thiere anyone who can tell me about this?I'll be really happy and thank you for your answer.

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

These terms appear very often in matters of currency exchange.

Just as USD refers to US dollars, CAD is used when one needs to identify that an amount is in Canadian dollars.

It is occasionally written as CAN, or CDN.

They are abbreviations, not acronyms. An acronym is 'initial letters that are pronounced as a word', eg NATO is pronounced 'nay-tow', so it's an acronym.

Best wishes, Clive

Dumbswede · Answer

CAD is also an acronym for Computer-Assisted Design, so watch the context !!

Parading · Answer

Hi, Clive.

I really really thank you for your detailed answer.

but I have one more question.

I'm confused with abbreviation and acronym.

I don't know exactly the differences.

I thought that 'CAD' is acronym. it refers to Canadian Dollar.

I think it picks up the initial letters.

so I don't understand that 'O.E.' or 'OE' referring to Old English is an abbreviation.

Could you explain it?

Thank you, Clive.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

I'm confused with abbreviation and acronym.

I don't know exactly the differences.

I thought that 'CAD' is acronym. it refers to Canadian Dollar.

I think it picks up the initial letters.

so I don't understand that 'O.E.' or 'OE' referring to Old English is an abbreviation.

Could you explain it?

The difference lies in how we say these things.

FBI - we say eff-bee-eye

OE - we say oh-eee

In other words, we pronounce each letter separately.

Now consider this.

NATO (which means North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

We don't pronounce each letter separately. We pronounce the letters as a single word, nay-toe.

When we do this, we call it an acronym.

We write $100 CAD, but we always say the complete word 'Canadian', ie one hundred dollars Canadian. So, CAD is not an acronym.

Please ask again if you still don't understand.

Clive

Parading · Answer

Hi, Clive.

I think maybe I could understand you.

you think CAD is an abbreviation.

according to the Wikipedia, it saids 'Univ.' is an abbreviation, too.

but I wonder how it is prounounced?

Is it pronounced with ioo-niv? or ioo-nee-versity?

and is it right that 'LOL'(laugh out loud), 'BRB'(be right back) is an initialism? not an acronym?

How about ROK(Republic Of Korea, one of the Asia countries)? is that an initialism too?

I think what you wanted to talk about is that an acronym is pronounced with one word, not speaking those single letters in it.

Clive, Thank you for answering me.

Clive · Answer

Hi again,

I think maybe I could understand you.

you think CAD is an abbreviation.

according to the Wikipedia, it saids 'Univ.' is an abbreviation, too.

but I wonder how it is prounounced?

Is it pronounced with ioo-niv? or ioo-nee-versity? We write the abbreviation, but if we read it out loud we say the whole word 'university'.

and is it right that 'LOL'(laugh out loud), 'BRB'(be right back) is an initialism? 'Initialism' is not really a word. You could say that they are abbreviations formed from initials.'LOL' and 'BRB' are just some of the many abbreviations that are being created every day by people who do a lot of text-messaging. Many of them are not understood by people who don't text. They are not really part of spoken English.

not an acronym? Yes, they are not acronyms.

How about ROK(Republic Of Korea, one of the Asia countries)? is that an initialism too? It's an abbreviation. Just like USA or UK.

I think what you wanted to talk about is that an acronym is pronounced with one word, not speaking those single letters in it. Yes.

Clive

Anonymous · Answer

^ There are various common abbreviations to distinguish the Canadian dollar from others: while the ISO currency code CAD (a three-character code without monetary symbols) is common, no single system is universally accepted. Clt;/b> is recommended by the Canadian government (e.g., per The Canadian Style guide) and is used by the International Monetary Fund, while Editing Canadian English indicates Canlt;/b> and CDNlt;/b>; both guides note the ISO scheme/code. The abbreviation CAlt;/b> is also used, e.g., in some software packages.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_dollar

Clive · Answer

Hi,

An acronym is where the letters in the abreviation are pronounced as if they are a word.

eg NATO we don't say en aye tee oh. We say naytoh.

Compare IBM, which is an abbreviation. We say eye bee em.

Clive

Anonymous · Answer

I think the word you're looking for is "initialism."

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym_and_initialism

Anonymous · Answer

The last poster beat me to it!

univ. = abbreviation

FBI = initialization

S.C.U.B.A. = acronym

Acronym, CAN, CDN, CAD

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