113 cool & convenient German abbreviations you need to learn

It’s no secret that German has some of the longest words - but don’t worry. We’re here to teach you some shortcuts!

Do you ever stumble over those famously long and quirky German words like “Eichhörnchen” or “Sternschnuppe”?

10 letters into typing “beziehungsweise”, you might consider switching to a monosyllabic language like Cantonese, but don’t give up on learning German just yet! There’s an easy way out:

Germans almost never spell out this long word. We usually shorten it to “bzw.” and we do the same with many other words.

In Germany, most abbreviations have only 2 or 3 letters, which is conveniently short, especially if you consider that the longest German word has 79 letters! So we’ve listed 114 abbreviations in German to make your life a whole lot easier.

What are abbreviations?

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or a phrase. The term has its roots in the Latin verb “abbreviare”, meaning "to make brief," from “ad” (to) and “breviare” (to shorten). Abbreviations include acronyms and initialisms.

Types of abbreviations included in this article:

We’ve included both acronyms and initialisms here.

• An acronym is pronounced as one word like NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). A common German acronym is BAföG, which refers to financial aid for students.
• An initialism is pronounced as a series of letters like CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). A common German initialism is BMW.

Top common German abbreviations and acronyms

Here’s a list of the most common German abbreviations that you’re likely to encounter in everyday life. You’ll find abbreviations in all different categories of life - from toilets to clothes.

German abbreviations in an academic context

If you’re spending your semester abroad in a German-speaking country, you’re guaranteed to encounter some of these abbreviations - either in a term paper or when talking to your German classmates.

German abbreviations related to time

We shorten words in order to save time. Maybe that’s why we find so many time-related words commonly shortened!

Whether we’re talking about seconds, hours or even the months of the year, we love to keep it short!

German real estate abbreviations

If you’re new to Germany, getting a room or an apartment can be challenging. To make sure you understand all the info about your possible new home, we’ve listed some of the German abbreviations commonly used in real estate ads.

German text abbreviations

Texts often consist of slang words, many of which are abbreviations. A lot of German text abbreviations were actually copied from the English ones, so the first few of these might look very familiar to you!

German abbreviations of brands and products

Have you ever wondered what famous German brands and products like Adidas or Hanuta stand for?

With kinds regards from the German hip hop scene

Today’s German lesson is presented to you by the hip hop band “Die Fantastischen Vier”. They have a whole song dedicated to abbreviations and puns called “Mit freundlichen Grüßen” (MfG) or “with kind regards”.

Die Fantastischen Vier - Mfg

MfG - mit freundlichen Grüßen
Die Welt liegt uns zu Füßen, denn wir steh'n drauf
Wir gehen drauf für ein Leben voller Schall und Rauch
Bevor wir fallen, fallen wir lieber auf
HNO, EKG und AOK
LBS, WKD und IHK
UKW, NDW und Hubert Kah
BTM, BKA, hahahaha

These lyrics will make a lot more sense to you if your German is rather advanced since they’re full of abbreviations, puns and ambiguity.

“MFG” means "with kind regards”. The “HNO” is the Halsnasenohrenarzt(Throat Nose and Ears doctor), EKG is an “Elektrokardiogramm” (ECG) and “AOK” is the “Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse”, a German health insurance company.

Many of the lines are also ambivalent. For example, “auf etwas stehen” literally means “to stand on something” but at the same time it means “to be into something”, and “drauf gehen” means both “to walk on something” and “to die”. So you might have to listen to the song a few times before you get it all - but here’s a basic translation of the chorus:

MfG - with kind regards
The world lies at our feet, because we're standing on it
We're dying for a life of smoke and mirrors
Before we fall, we’d rather stand out
ENT, ECG and AOK
LBS, WKD and IHK
FM, NDW and Hubert Kah
BTM, BKA, hahahaha!

A final failsafe tip

With words like “Halsnasenohrenarzt” and “Ortskrankenkasse”, it becomes obvious why German relies so much on shortening words. If it all gets a little too much for you, there’s only one thing you need to remember.

A common German abbreviation is kP, short for “keinen Plan” or “I have no plan”. It’s a common way of saying “I don’t know” in German. So if someone asks you how to apply for “BAföG” or if your new apartment comes “zzgl. HK.”, and you have no idea what they want from you, just say “kP”, and you’ll still sound just like a local!

And here’s just one last abbreviation for you: GLB is our super cool German Language Blog - THE place to learn everything about German culture and the German language.