Learning French: do acronyms confuse or simplify language learning?

Learning French at school is challenging enough without the added complication of that most tricky of French linguistic minefields: the use of acronyms – with two exceptions, perhaps: everyone was taught that TGV means train à grande vitesse, or high speed train, and that le BAC qualification is short for le baccalauréat 

Read also: Acronyms explained: What is France's RATP?

The French call them sigles – from the legal Latin sigla, an abbreviation of a name, consisting of the initials, in upper case, of the terms that make the sigle up, and which is treated as a word – and you find them everywhere in French life. 

Need to do some research on the quality of your local care home for seniors? Look up EHPAD (Etablissement d’hébergement pour personnes âgées dépendantes). 

Just self-published a book about your life in France? You will need an identifying ISBN number for your masterpiece from the AFNIL (Agence Francophone pour la Numérotation Internationale du Livre). 

Looking for a permanent job? That’ll be a CDI (contrat à durée indéterminée) and not a temporary CDD (contrat à durée déterminée). 

And if you fancy a flutter on the horse trotting, keep an eye out for the red and green PMU sign on your local high street. The sigle for le pari mutuel urbain is one of the most recognisable acronyms on a sign in France. 

Read also: Learning French: understanding 'backwards' abbreviations

Some critics have called the encroachment of acronym use in daily French life as ‘poison’ and ‘an addiction’. I would disagree – they are tailor made for French learners. 

You don’t actually need to know what the full titles of these organisations are – which are often overly wordy and formal – just learn to recognise and correctly pronounce acronyms in your best French instead.