What's new on IELTS with Fiona

Today I saw this excellent post on LinkedIn by Ricardo Cezar.

He points out that "the last letter of an abbreviation has the heaviest stress and the highest pitch".

e.g. the US, the UK, the CIA, DOB, ETA , the FBI, the CIA, an ATM, an MA, ASAP, a DVD, a URL, a CV, DIY, an FAQ, FYI, the NBA, EFL.

I had never thought about that before!

Do you know what they all stand for? Post in the comments below.

Compare this stress pattern with the acronyms we talked about in my previous post:

• NASA, NATO, BAFTA, DEFRA, AWOL, UNICEF, FIFA, OPEC

Here, the stress is on the first syllable, because you pronounce them as WHOLE WORDS, not individual letters.

See also: short forms and abbreviations for text messages