Ever spotted a short Russian word in all caps and wondered what it stands for? Russian abbreviations are everywhere, and learning them will help you sound more natural and fluent.
Here are some common and useful ones:
🏫 вуз — вы́сшее уче́бное заведе́ние (university)
👉 Она́ рабо́тает в ву́зе. (She works at a university.)
💷 НДС — нало́г на доба́вленную сто́имость (value-added tax)
👉 Цена́ ука́зана без учёта НДС. (The price doesn’t include VAT.)
🔧 СТО — ста́нция техни́ческого обслу́живания (garage)
👉 Е́ду на СТО, ну́жно замени́ть ма́сло. (I’m off to the garage to have the oil changed.)
🚒 ЧП — чрезвыча́йное происше́ствие (emergency)
👉 На ме́сте ЧП рабо́тают спаса́тели. (Rescuers are working at the scene of the emergency.)
💡 Note: ‘вуз’ is read as one whole word, while ‘НДС’, ‘СТО’, and ‘ЧП’ are spelled out letter by letter, according to the Russian alphabet — read more about Russian letter names in this post. Also, unlike the other three abbreviations, ‘вуз’ is declined: вуз, ву́за, ву́зу, вуз, ву́зом, (о) ву́зе.
Get familiar with Russian abbreviations, and you’ll start noticing them everywhere — from street signs to news headlines.
To be continued… More everyday Russian abbreviations coming soon.
💬 Can you think of any other Russian abbreviations? Share them in the comments!
You can also explore more tricky Russian words in my post on Russian compound nouns.
Activity
Choose the abbreviation that fits the sentence. Tick the box next to your choice, then click the tick in the bottom right corner to check your answer. Click the arrow in the same corner to go to the next sentence.
- If you are using a mobile device, tap the expand icon in the top right corner and the exercise will open in a new window.