"Why U.S and not US?" Topic

I have noticed in general that whenever Americans use acronyms in written form they, like everyone else, remove the dots. For example U.S.S.R becomes USSR and U.K become UK. But U.S always seems to be written as U.S and not US, why is that?

Ezza

Laziness or all those full stops waste ink…

I recall mention on a documentary letters (I think 18th/19thC.) where the i's weren't dotted to save on ink.

Because US is also a word?

I struggle with this as I use these acronyms every day and correspond with people all over the world. I prefer to use the periods in acronyms. However, I've found no consistent practice by country. I do notice that Europeans generally use EU and not E.U.

I don't add the dots, but I do add an A, USA…

That's very funny, I actually write US and then place the periods for everyone else: U.S.S.R., U.K., E.U., I.N.D.I.A., P.R.C.H.I.N.A..

D.o.n.a.l.d~

If you live in it, it's US. If not, it's U.S.

Reminds me of the kid at the ACW reenactment asking why the belt buckles said US, and the soldier told him to go to the other camp where the belt buckles say THEM.

Most of the time I pot the dots in all of them (U.S.A., U.K., U.S.S.R., etc.).

No dots here.

I don't use periods for most abbreviations like that.

When I do have to think about is when Los Angeles or Louisiana are being discussed. Both use the abbreviation LA. I've noticed newspapers are using La. for Louisiana.

BooneC,

True, US is a word but so is WHO (World Health Organisation) and I have never seen it written as W.H.O.

Ezza

I think fullstops in any abbreviations are a bit old-fashioned (in my part of the world, anyway).

Plus they look ugly and are often inconsistent.

For instance, in the example cited by the OP (note, no fullstops in the abbreviation OP!), why U.S – where is the second fullstop? Shouldn't it be U.S.?

Then, in the sentence I've written just above, I now have two punctuation marks following each other – the fullstop then the question mark, which looks ugly.

Then there are the abbreviations that don't denote separate words, but parts of a word, for example TV for TeleVision – that would look downright weird with fullstops: T.V.

When I was young, I was taught that you *did* have fullstops in all abbreviations and contractions. For example, my dad was Mr. Hermans, and my mum was Mrs. Hermans. But fashion has changed here, than goodness, and nowadays it is no fullstops in abbreviations and contractions, so I'm just plain Mr Hermans.

I don't bother with the dots. Years of service in the USN, where sometimes you had to consult DICNAVAB (Dictionary of Naval Abreviations) to figure out what someone had written cured me of my need for dots!

My only experiences being in the hands of Navy types, they were from FASOTRAGRULANT.

I bounce back and forth between dots and nodots….

Because Standardized English is dead.
-Kle.

You mean "Standardised English", surely?