Business English Alphabet and Acronyms Pronunciation

Student Worksheet

Fill in the table with the whole alphabet by the common vowel sounds here.

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 and check 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 more questions about the acronyms above.

Do the same with the acronyms below.

MBA USA CV

a.m. p.m. VAT PLC

MD UN GDP APR

www HR

PTO PhD DC

Do the same with acronyms from your field

Which of these acronyms can be said like words, e.g. NATO /neito/?

VIP OPEC WHO

CAD CAM EFTA IMF

LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) CEO

OECD PIN IT

Business English Alphabet and Acronyms Pronunciation

Teacher’s notes and answer key

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)

Z (American English= zee)

Z (British English= zed)

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)

OPEC CAD CAM EFTA LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) PIN

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PDF version for easy printing: BusinessAlphabetAcronyms