<p>I think this is a fairly exhaustive list of currently existing countries. This does not encompass unabbreviated country names that end with 国 (e.g., 孟加拉国):</p>

<p><strong>Common</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>中国 (Zhōngguó) - P. R. China or R. O. China depending on context</li>
<li>法国 (Fǎguó) - France</li>
<li>德国 (Déguó) - Germany</li>
<li>泰国 (Tàiguó) - Thailand</li>
<li>英国 (Yīngguó) - England / UK</li>
<li>美国 (Měiguó) - USA</li>
<li>韩国 (Hánguó) - South Korea</li>
<li>俄国 (Éguó) - Russia</li>
<li>寮国 (Liáoguó) - Laos (chiefly Taiwan, the term is dated in mainland China. Use 老挝 (Lǎowō).)</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Rare</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>奥国 (Àoguó) - Austria</li>
<li>葡国 (Púguó) - Portugal</li>
<li>墨国 (Mòguó) - Mexico</li>
<li>加国 (Jiāguó) - Canada</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-09T23:14:52.180Z
And 寮国 for Laos in Taiwan. Mainland China used this term before as well.
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-09T23:16:11.927Z
hmm.. I am not so sure if it's an abbreviation though? Otherwise it would definitely warrant inclusion here. I am contradicting myself here as this would rule out 泰国 as well.. hmm.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-09T23:21:34.267Z
I will include it for the time being.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T05:55:12.210Z
(More) rare ones: 加拿大 - 加国, 西班牙 - 西国, 墨西哥 - 墨国.
Inglis Baderson
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T08:34:45.120Z
@deutschZuid Arguably 泰国 is short for 泰王国 and 寮国 for 寮人民民主共和国. More seriously, I don't think 中国 is an abbreviation...
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T08:45:16.510Z
I just travelled through China to Mongolia and heard 蒙国 all the time.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T10:34:51.757Z
中国 is now an abbreviation though.
amateur
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T14:08:32.407Z
@amateur it depends what you are referring to. It's an abbreviation for PRC or ROC, but is not an abbreviation for "China".
congusbongus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T20:17:29.997Z
@hippietrail I can't seem to attest 蒙国 at all. I just can't imagine a two character country name being 'abbreviated' to another two character country name. 墨国 and 加国 are attestable, but 西国 is a bit harder to attest due to its name conflict with an ancient Chinese city state.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T20:28:57.443Z
@deutschZuid: **1.** You're right. Seems I was hearing "méngguó" but they were saying "ménggǔ". **2.** You're trying to force a strict interpretation of "abbreviation" rather than a generous reading of a naive question where the OP might not know all the best terminology. Something like "short-form country names" works. As does accepting degenerate cases which don't require abbreviating since they're already in the exact form of an abbreviation.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T20:33:28.010Z
@hippietrail You are right about me trying to enforce these rules even if I wasn't completely aware of what I was doing. I believe I have since relaxed the rules. I am including pretty much every two character country names suffixed with 国 as long as they are attestable.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T21:51:13.790Z
As a native speaker I am too used to the two-character country names to find them interesting. Instead, the rule behind the long names with 'transliteration + 国' format is amusing, i.e. why 孟加拉国 sounds natural while 西班牙国 or 澳大利亚国 does not. (I am not asking you to answer this:))
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T23:47:35.593Z
@deutschZuid Usually what you read in the news is that the usual name of the country appears first, such as 加拿大, then it might be abbreviated to 加国 in the subsequent occurrences. 西国 wouldn't be a problem in this context.
user58955
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-01T00:38:37.270Z
大馬 for Malaysia.
Flux
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-01T00:39:34.657Z
I've seen 紐國 used for New Zealand on the front page of a newspaper.
Flux
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-03T22:25:43.100Z
@Flux Which newspaper? That'd be the first I've heard of it having lived in NZ for 25 years. Of course my main source of Chinese here is from the local Chinese community, not worldwide, hence my question.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-04T00:33:05.833Z
@deutschZuid [星洲日報](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_Chew_Daily) (a Malaysian newspaper). "紐國" is short for "紐西蘭". A quick search for "紐國" on Google returns lots of results, mostly of articles from Taiwanese newspapers.
Flux
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-04T22:43:36.673Z
@Flux Very interesting. Thanks.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-09T23:02:00.640Z
2014-02-10T20:25:27.550Z
2014-02-10T20:25:27.550Z
deutschZuid
<p>Most countries can be abbreviated by the first character in their name especially when describing the relations between two or more countries. There are some exceptions and many will be duplicates.</p>

<p>For example: </p>

<ul>
<li><p>印 can refer to both 印度 India and 印尼 Indonesia; short  for 印度尼西亚.</p></li>
<li><p>伊 can refer to 伊朗 Iran and 伊拉克 Iraq. 两伊 means Iran-Iraq.</p></li>
<li><p>新 can refer to 新加坡 Singapore and 新西兰 New Zealand.</p></li>
<li><p>巴 can refer to 巴基斯坦 Pakistan, 巴勒斯坦 Palestine, 巴拿马 Panama, 巴拉圭 Paraguay and 巴布亚新几内亚 Papua New Guinea.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>So you can put two countries together + 战争 War, + 冲突 Conflict, + 关系 Relations, etc.</p>

<p>Examples:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>以巴冲突 Israeli-Palestinian conflict.</p></li>
<li><p>两伊战争 Iran-Iraq War.</p></li>
<li><p>中日关系 Sino-Japanese relations.</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-11T04:03:12.083Z
2014-02-11T04:03:12.083Z
amateur
<p>We only refer to some countries this way:</p>

<p>德国 (Deutsch)，法国 (France)，美国 (America), 英国 (England), 俄国 (Russia) - these countries were the first countries to visit China. Maybe at that time people began to learn English and translated the name in a different way.</p>

<p>Also 俄国 is more for referring to Russia before Soviet Union (苏联). Current Russia we call 俄罗斯.</p>

<p>For 韩国 (south Korea), it's because Koreans call their country <a href="http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%8C%80%ED%95%9C%EB%AF%BC%EA%B5%AD" rel="nofollow">大韓民國</a>.</p>

<p>For 泰国, I'm not sure.</p>

<p>For other countries' names, we try to use the pronunciation for translation:</p>

<ul>
<li>Australia - 澳大利亚, 澳洲</li>
<li>Austria - 奥地利</li>
<li>Spain - 西班牙</li>
<li>Canada - 加拿大</li>
<li>Portugal - 葡萄牙
...</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-11T02:51:55.530Z
2014-02-11T10:04:59.937Z
2014-02-11T10:04:59.937Z
Sam Liao
<p>In watching CCTV-4 news, I frequently see country names abbreviated but miss the leading character before I can look it up carefully (I know the major ones).  Is there a list anywhere  of those standard abbreviations (most of the form X国)?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-09T07:36:00.500Z
Have you tried Wikipedia?
杨以轩
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T20:34:33.000Z
There seem to have been other patterns for abbreviations or short-form names of countries in the past. Australia was 濠州 for instance. 国 is closer to *country* and 州 is closer to *state*.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-10T23:50:19.747Z
濠州 is Japanese. It is 澳洲 in Chinese
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-11T08:58:00.490Z
@user58955: I found a few variants of the same which have been used in either or both of Japanese and Korean: `豪州`, `濠州`, `濠洲`. I don't know which country used it first.
hippietrail
<place-names>
list of Chinese language country name abbreviations
# list of Chinese language country name abbreviations

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-02-08)

In watching CCTV-4 news, I frequently see country names abbreviated but miss the leading character before I can look it up carefully (I know the major ones). Is there a list anywhere of those standard abbreviations (most of the form X国)?

**Tags:** place-names

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Have you tried Wikipedia?  
> **username_2**: There seem to have been other patterns for abbreviations or short-form names of countries in the past. Australia was 濠州 for instance. 国 is closer to *country* and 州 is closer to *state*.  
> **username_3**: 濠州 is Japanese. It is 澳洲 in Chinese  
> **username_2**: @username_3: I found a few variants of the same which have been used in either or both of Japanese and Korean: `豪州`, `濠州`, `濠洲`. I don't know which country used it first.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2014-02-09. Score: 4

I think this is a fairly exhaustive list of currently existing countries. This does not encompass unabbreviated country names that end with 国 (e.g., 孟加拉国):

**Common**

* 中国 (Zhōngguó) - P. R. China or R. O. China depending on context
* 法国 (Fǎguó) - France
* 德国 (Déguó) - Germany
* 泰国 (Tàiguó) - Thailand
* 英国 (Yīngguó) - England / UK
* 美国 (Měiguó) - USA
* 韩国 (Hánguó) - South Korea
* 俄国 (Éguó) - Russia
* 寮国 (Liáoguó) - Laos (chiefly Taiwan, the term is dated in mainland China. Use 老挝 (Lǎowō).)

**Rare**

* 奥国 (Àoguó) - Austria
* 葡国 (Púguó) - Portugal
* 墨国 (Mòguó) - Mexico
* 加国 (Jiāguó) - Canada

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: And 寮国 for Laos in Taiwan. Mainland China used this term before as well.  
> **username_4**: hmm.. I am not so sure if it's an abbreviation though? Otherwise it would definitely warrant inclusion here. I am contradicting myself here as this would rule out 泰国 as well.. hmm.  
> **username_4**: I will include it for the time being.  
> **username_5**: (More) rare ones: 加拿大 - 加国, 西班牙 - 西国, 墨西哥 - 墨国.  
> **username_3**: @username_4 Arguably 泰国 is short for 泰王国 and 寮国 for 寮人民民主共和国. More seriously, I don't think 中国 is an abbreviation...  
> **username_2**: I just travelled through China to Mongolia and heard 蒙国 all the time.  
> **username_6**: 中国 is now an abbreviation though.  
> **username_7**: @username_6 it depends what you are referring to. It's an abbreviation for PRC or ROC, but is not an abbreviation for "China".  
> **username_4**: @username_2 I can't seem to attest 蒙国 at all. I just can't imagine a two character country name being 'abbreviated' to another two character country name. 墨国 and 加国 are attestable, but 西国 is a bit harder to attest due to its name conflict with an ancient Chinese city state.  
> **username_2**: @username_4: **1.** You're right. Seems I was hearing "méngguó" but they were saying "ménggǔ". **2.** You're trying to force a strict interpretation of "abbreviation" rather than a generous reading of a naive question where the OP might not know all the best terminology. Something like "short-form country names" works. As does accepting degenerate cases which don't require abbreviating since they're already in the exact form of an abbreviation.  
> **username_4**: @username_2 You are right about me trying to enforce these rules even if I wasn't completely aware of what I was doing. I believe I have since relaxed the rules. I am including pretty much every two character country names suffixed with 国 as long as they are attestable.  
> **username_8**: As a native speaker I am too used to the two-character country names to find them interesting. Instead, the rule behind the long names with 'transliteration + 国' format is amusing, i.e. why 孟加拉国 sounds natural while 西班牙国 or 澳大利亚国 does not. (I am not asking you to answer this:))  
> **username_3**: @username_4 Usually what you read in the news is that the usual name of the country appears first, such as 加拿大, then it might be abbreviated to 加国 in the subsequent occurrences. 西国 wouldn't be a problem in this context.  
> **username_9**: 大馬 for Malaysia.  
> **username_9**: I've seen 紐國 used for New Zealand on the front page of a newspaper.  
> **username_4**: @username_9 Which newspaper? That'd be the first I've heard of it having lived in NZ for 25 years. Of course my main source of Chinese here is from the local Chinese community, not worldwide, hence my question.  
> **username_9**: @username_4 [星洲日報](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_Chew_Daily) (a Malaysian newspaper). "紐國" is short for "紐西蘭". A quick search for "紐國" on Google returns lots of results, mostly of articles from Taiwanese newspapers.  
> **username_4**: @username_9 Very interesting. Thanks.  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2014-02-11. Score: 3

Most countries can be abbreviated by the first character in their name especially when describing the relations between two or more countries. There are some exceptions and many will be duplicates.

For example:

* 印 can refer to both 印度 India and 印尼 Indonesia; short for 印度尼西亚.
* 伊 can refer to 伊朗 Iran and 伊拉克 Iraq. 两伊 means Iran-Iraq.
* 新 can refer to 新加坡 Singapore and 新西兰 New Zealand.
* 巴 can refer to 巴基斯坦 Pakistan, 巴勒斯坦 Palestine, 巴拿马 Panama, 巴拉圭 Paraguay and 巴布亚新几内亚 Papua New Guinea.

So you can put two countries together + 战争 War, + 冲突 Conflict, + 关系 Relations, etc.

Examples:

* 以巴冲突 Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
* 两伊战争 Iran-Iraq War.
* 中日关系 Sino-Japanese relations.


---

### Answer by username_10 on 2014-02-11. Score: 2

We only refer to some countries this way:

德国 (Deutsch)，法国 (France)，美国 (America), 英国 (England), 俄国 (Russia) - these countries were the first countries to visit China. Maybe at that time people began to learn English and translated the name in a different way.

Also 俄国 is more for referring to Russia before Soviet Union (苏联). Current Russia we call 俄罗斯.

For 韩国 (south Korea), it's because Koreans call their country [大韓民國](http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%8C%80%ED%95%9C%EB%AF%BC%EA%B5%AD).

For 泰国, I'm not sure.

For other countries' names, we try to use the pronunciation for translation:

* Australia - 澳大利亚, 澳洲
* Austria - 奥地利
* Spain - 西班牙
* Canada - 加拿大
* Portugal - 葡萄牙
  ...


---

