Good abbrev ideas

The more I started using abbrev the more uses I found for it. Here I showcase some of my nicest abbrev candidates as well as corresponding examples from my personal abbrev file.

capitalized words

Typing an uppercase letter, LETTER, requires the key-chord SHIFT LETTER. A key-chord is a set of keys pressed simultaneously. Assuming you use a QWERTY keyboard, a key-chord is in general harder, slower, and more strenuous to type than a series of individual letters. Abbrevs allows us produce the results of harder keystrokes with a short series of easier ones.

            
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "i" "I")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "luis" "Luis")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "Emacs" "Emacs")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "english" "English")
;; Not the be confused with the actual word "shift" I add a "k" to the end of
;; the abbrev to represent "shift key".  And this way I avoid having to
;; capitalize the entire word myself.
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "shiftk" "SHIFT")
            
        

contractions

Contractions are just abbreviations of certain english words like not–and in terms of typing it is doubtful whether they are even easier to type than their expansions. In any case, you can get the benefit of saving text when typing the contraction, but. Almost all punctuation is produced via a key-chords. Use abbrevs to avoid ever having to type ' and other forms of punctuation found in english.

            
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "youre" "you are")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "dnt" "do not")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "wdnt" "would not")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "wouldnt" "would not")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "cdnt" "could not")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "couldnt" "could not")
            
        

common spelling mistakes

You can register your typos as abbrevs and their corrections as the corresponding expansions, essentially creating a sort of auto-correct.

If you are familiar with Emacs you might be thinking, why not just use flyspell? It has an can identify typos guess what word you meant when you misspell a word.

Admittedly, flyspell is pretty good at guessing which word you meant but it is not perfect and it is not catered specifically for your typing. Everyone has words they tend to type incorrectly more than others–a sort of "typo tendency" if you will–and this tendency varies among individuals. This tendency is simply not accounted for be flyspell.

For example, for me th is a common misspelling for the. Flyspell did correctly identifies it as a typo but auto-correcting it yields ht¹, a word I never use.

            
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "htat" "that")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "hte" "the")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "th" "the")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "ot" "to")
            
        

transitional words and phrases

Transitional words and phrases are good candidates for abbrevs because of how frequently used they are in sentences.

            
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "altho" "although")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "hw" "however")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "moro" "moreover")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "iow" "in other words")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "otoh" "on the one hand")
            
        

phrases

The English language is rife with multi-word phrases such as "more often than not" or "once upon a time". Abbreviating these phrases is particularly satisfying due to the sheer number of words saved.

            
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "ivs" "I have seen")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "idlk" "I do not like")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "idk" "I do not know")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "damw" "do not ask me why")
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "iff" "if and only if")
            
        

words that just go together

Words are just commonly used in tandem like "version control" or "regular expression".

(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "vc" "version control")
            
(define-abbrev text-mode-abbrev-table "rx" "regular expression")
            
        

Of course this list is not exhaustive and It cannot be because there are so many ways to use abbrevs, but it is a great point to get started. Also, check out my abbrev file for more inspiration.