30+ German Abbreviations

When you’ve been learning German for a while, there comes a time when you decide to read  some ‘real’ German books or articles and not just textbooks or stories designed for learners. That’s when you will also come across abbreviations. And just like many  words they are not always recogniseable.

As you can imagine there are  thousands of abbreviations.  Wikipedia has a page with lists of German abbreviations, or you can try Abkürzungen.de to find the meaning of an abbreviation. Or you can start with the following 30 German abbreviations:

So what do they all mean?

Abb.
Abbild – image. You might find it in a non fiction book where there is reference to an image.
bspw.
beispielsweise – for example. Where you might see e.g. in an English text.
bzgl.
bezüglich – relating to/ regarding/ referring to
bzw.
beziehungsweise – or rather/ more specifically
d.h.
das heißt – that is. Or in English abbreviated as i.e.
evtl.
eventuell – possibly. Careful: eventuell doesn’t mean eventually!
gem.
gemäß – according to
Hrsg.
Herausgeber – publisher
i.A.
im Auftrag – on behalf of. This you see often at the bottom of an official letter when somebody signs on behalf of somebody else. In English p.p.
inkl.
inklusive – including
m.E.
meines Erachtens – in my opinion
Mio.
Millionen – millions
Mrd.
Milliarden – billions
MwSt.
Mehrwertsteuer – value added tax, English abbreviation VAT
Nr.
Nummer – number
o.ä.
oder ähnlich (o.Ä. oder Ähnliches) – or similar
S.
Seite – page
s.a.
siehe auch – see also
s.o.
siehe oben – see above
sog.
sogenannt – so-called
Tel.
Telefon – telephone
Tsd.
Tausend – thousand
u.a.
unter anderem – among other things
u.U.
unter Umständen – possibly
usw.
und so weiter – etc/ and so on
u.v.m.
und vieles mehr – and much more
vgl.
vergleiche – compare
z.B.
zum Beispiel – for example
zz.
zurzeit – currently
zzgl.
zuzüglich – plus/ in addition

There you are, 30 German abbreviations which you may or may not know. (How many did you know?)

Want more abbreviations?

Okay, but you’ll have to do some work for it. The following video is a listening exercise from my  German Alphabet course . It has 26 German/ Austrian companies or things, one abbreviation for each letter of the alphabet. Enjoy!