[ Enjoy English 177 ] 1-(3) FAQs

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uptodate_faq.mp3

 1-(3) FAQs

Now, nobody knows how many abbreviations there are in the English language,

or in any language for that matter – half a million in one big set of dictionaries I've got:

half a million abbreviations, can you imagine it! They're very important, abbreviations,

because they save time and they add familiarity; it's a way of gaining rapport.

I don't say "I'm in the British Broadcasting Corporation studio", I say "I'm in the BBC studio"

…it adds a sort of familiarity, doesn't it.

Now there are written abbreviations and spoken abbreviations,

and the written ones are the ones that are interesting today

– because you can have letters like U.N. for United Nations

and you can have words like UNESCO for the other organisation.

Now, faqs – you've seen them a thousand times I suppose on computer screens –

are computer text files containing a list of questions and answers,

especially basic stuff on news groups where you want to find a quick reply.

It's not a universally spoken word.

You don't say I've got some faqs – because that could be very misleading,

it could sound like facts, f-a-c-t-s.

So most people use it as an initialism, they spell it out: F. A. Q.

And it's beginning to be used now in a more general way, outside the internet setting.

People talk about F.A.Q.s in all kinds of non-computer circumstances.

I saw it on a church notice board once. I'll leave you to guess what the questions were.

* FAQs ; Frequently Asked Questions (and answers)

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