海角社区

EE UU is the Spanish abbreviation for the US (United States). In English, a person from America will say 鈥淚 am from the United States鈥� or simply 鈥淚 am from the US.鈥� In Spanish, the same person will say 鈥淪oy de los Estados Unidos鈥� or simply as 鈥淪oy de EE.UU.鈥� Normally, one will assume that one of the E鈥檚 stand for 鈥淓stados鈥� and one of the U鈥檚 is for 鈥淯nidos.鈥� The question in the minds of those who do not understand Spanish or beginners is 鈥淲hat do the other E and U stand for?鈥� other people have also asked why 鈥淯S鈥� cannot be abbreviated as 鈥淓U.鈥� While the majority of these non-Spanish speakers or beginners think that 鈥淓U鈥� is not used because the country would be confused with the European Union 鈥淓U,鈥� that is not the case. To understand why the US is abbreviated as EE UU in Spanish, one has to understand the rule of abbreviation in Spanish.

The Spanish Language

The Spanish language is one of the most interesting languages and is spoken in many countries around the 海角社区. Its origin can be traced from the Castile area of Spain. Spanish has over 480 million native speakers and an additional 75 million people who speak it as a second language. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and also one of the EU鈥檚 official language. Most of the Spanish vocabulary have their origin from Latin while Arabic and ancient Greek have also substantially enriched its vocabulary. Spoken Spanish is not as complicated as written Spanish. Written Spanish, especially when abbreviations are involved, can be difficult for beginners to comprehend.

Spanish Abbreviation Rule

In Spanish, two same phrases can be abbreviated differently depending on whether the phrase is singular or plural. The doubling of the letters indicates plurality while the use of single letters indicate singularity. For instance, the doubling of E and U means the phrase contain plural words (United States). If the phrase was in singular form (United State), it would be abbreviated as 鈥淓U鈥� in Spanish. Other common double Spanish abbreviations include AA EE for Foreign Affairs (Asuntos Exteriores) or FF AA for Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas). However, not all plural phrases are doubled, especially when the Spanish phrase contains three or more words that are to be abbreviated. For instance, la Organizaci贸n de las Naciones Unidas (United Nations) is abbreviated as 鈥淥NU鈥� and not 鈥淯U NN.鈥� Occasionally, Estados Unidos de Am茅rica (United States of America) is abbreviated in Spanish as EAU.

Double Abbreviation in English

The double abbreviation is not only used in written Spanish but is also used in English abbreviation for few words, especially those of Latin origin. For example, a page is abbreviated as 鈥減.,鈥� while 鈥減ages鈥� is abbreviated as 鈥減p.鈥� the same abbreviations also apply in Spanish for 鈥減agina鈥� and 鈥減aginas.鈥� Another example is 鈥渕anuscript鈥� which can be abbreviated as 鈥渕s鈥� or 鈥淢S鈥� while in the plural it is abbreviated as 鈥淢SS.鈥�