What's the difference between an acronym and an abbreviation?

Many people feel they have the same meaning, but traditionally there is a difference:

An acronym is a word that is made by taking the first letter of the full name or sentence. For example, there is a famous Swedish furniture company called IKEA. It is the short form of for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. The company name is called IKEA; it is read like any other word. It is never spelled out letter by letter: I - K- E- A.

An abbreviation is used by taking the first letter of a longer sentence. Each letter is spelled out and not read as a word. Two examples are BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and CNN (Cable News Network).



ASAP (or A.S.A.P.) stands for "as soon as possible". We you use this abbreviation when we want someone to do something quickly: "Send me the report ASAP."
ETA (not E.T.A) stands for "estimated time of arrival". It is the time when a form of transport (like a train or plane) is expected to arrive in a place. The opposite is ETD ("estimated time of departure").
B.Y.O.B. or (BYOB) often seen on invites to parties. It stands for "bring your own bottle / booze"; you are invited to a party, but you should bring your own drinks.

If you are about to fly, check out this 10 min video with English transcriptions, explanations and pronunciation. Si estás apunto de volar, echa un vistazo a este video de 10 min sobre vocabulario, explicaciones y pronunciación. Have a nice flight!

Video explicando 6 usos de GET, una de las palabras inglesas con más acepciones. From reallifebh.com