abbreviations

[Tony Sanabria]

What are the rules for abbreviating a word? For example, International is "Intnl" (I think). Why? And how or where can I learn the rules.

[panjandrum]

It's "int'l."

Your question is too broad. I'm afraid there isn't an easy formula for learning all abbreviations; besides, some words have multiple possible abbreviations. The only way to learn abbreviations is to learn them one by one.

[panjandrum]

On-line dictionaries can provide some clues. For instance, the page for international at Merriam-Webster on-line has a link for Ajou Int'l Business School. But as I noted, there isn't a hard-and-fast set of rules for abbreviating English words.