Is it okay to say:
Today is psg vs rma
Does this even make any sense?
Or should this be said in a different way?
I want to say is that there is match between rma and psg but writing the whole thing is too long.
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It would certainly puzzle your average reader!– Ronald SoleMar 6, 2018 at 11:08
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We can't really answer, because you haven't told us what you're trying to say.– stangdonMar 6, 2018 at 11:33
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1You can say it – but if people don't know what "psg" and "rma" are, they won't know what you're talking about.– J.R. ♦Mar 6, 2018 at 11:53
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Then what about "it's psg vs rma today" ?– user136298Mar 6, 2018 at 13:06
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2If you said this in the middle of a conversation about sports, this would almost certainly make sense. If it was the very first sentence you said to begin a conversation with a stranger, they would probably be confused because they wouldn't know that the context was sports.– Canadian YankeeMar 6, 2018 at 14:36
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2 Answers
Assuming that you're talking to someone who knows who PSG and RMA are (which should be capitalized, by the way) it's fine. This isn't really an English question since I'm sure every language around the world has similar abbreviations for things like well-known sports teams, and the only way to understand those abbreviations is to know the context.
It would be like someone in a group of American football fans exclaiming, "Hey, it's the Ravens vs. the Patriots today!" The speaker assumes that everyone else in the group knows who these teams are (and if you don't, maybe you're in the wrong group).
In a similar way I hear or read the UK sports people referring to "Arsenal" or "Manchester United" and while I recognize that these are soccer/football teams, I have no idea of their significance in the world.
Nor do I much care, but that's a completely separate topic.
Saying "Today is PSG vs RMA" only makes sense with a heavy dose of context. For example, "I'm looking at the schedule and today is PSG vs RMA." Phrased like this there is an emphasis that "today" was selected from possible dates and then "PSG vs RMA" was a consequence of that choice. It's also only a good choice at all if there's only one match "today", otherwise you would either list all the matches or phrase it differently. There are some other constructions that don't rely so heavily on context which I would recommend.
The simplest alternative is simply "PSG vs RMA is today." While this wouldn't sound entirely natural in the above context, it is also much more likely to be understood independently and regardless of context. I can not think of any situations where this phrasing would be harder to understand than the one you suggest. At worst, someone hearing this would think "I don't know what 'PSG vs RMA' is, but I guess it's happening today?" On the other hand, the "Today is X" form is used in other ways so it doesn't clearly convey that some event is happening today without context.
If you wanted to enhance general understanding, saying "the PSG vs RMA match" rather than just "PSG vs RMA" isn't a lot longer and should smooth things over for people who wouldn't directly get any meaning from "PSG vs RMA". With this clarification, "Today is the PSG vs RMA match" would be fine with very little required context, and without causing much ambiguity.
Full disclosure, I speak American English not British English. I don't believe this is a case that differs substantially, but since the question is specifically tagged "British English" I want to make it clear that I am not answering with any expertise regarding that tag.
