People from LA, how do you distinguish between Louisiana and Los Angeles when using the two-letter abbreviation?

34 comments

1. context clues, critical thinking, asking whoever wrote the abbreviation for clarification

2. LA would not be in the state field of an address in California and no one refers to Louisiana as LA.

3. Same as ON, CA….context tells you Canada or California

4. context usually makes it clear, like “my favorite place on the west coast is LA” is perfectly obvious. “The best cajun and creole food can be found in LA”, also obvious.

5. When I was in college I met someone from New Orleans. Their Facebook profile said “NOLA”. I thought it was some kind of protest against Los Angeles.

6. You virtually never use the State Abbreviations for most States in standard verbal conversation. Places like Pennsylvania do, but most do not. In written conversation context clues will tell you which is being discussed.

7. 99% of the time it’s pretty clear from the context which is meant.

8. There are over 2x as many people in the Los Angeles metro area as there are in Louisiana so unless someone specifies a city that I know is in Louisiana then I assume Los Angeles.

9. Heh just wait until you find out what it’s like living in New York State and not the city

10. I’m not from LA, but context.

11. Context. Just like most things in every language everywhere ever.

12. I think on Jeopardy clues, LA is Louisiana and L.A. is Los Angeles, so that’s always been an easy distinction.

13. Most don’t know Louisiana is a state probably

14. It’s not often confused. There is usually enough context.

15. What would it look like inside the gym: Louisiana Fitness?

16. The same way Kentuckians tell the difference between the UK in Lexington and the UK in Europe

17. The same we do for New York

    “The city or the state?”

18. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call Louisiana “LA” in a verbal conversation. I never even saw it in writing until Reddit. Even then, it’s usually La instead of LA.

19. I’ve seen some news stories abbreviate the state as La rather than LA and I’ve always wondered if this is the reason why.

20. Honestly, this isn’t an issue because nobody talks like this. You almost never verbally refer to a state by two letter designation. Only see it on those little scroll wheels when you enter payment/shipping info on the internet or like… those timetables at the airport.

21. Context

22. LA is the two letter state abbreviation for Louisiana that you write. I have never heard someone say “LA” in regards to Louisiana. You just say the name. Or if you’re fancy, you call it “the boot”.
    L.A. is Los Angeles. And you can *say* L.A. and most people know you are referring to a city in California. If both are written you just have to use some common sense to work out which one they mean.

23. Does anyone refer to Louisiana as “LA”? I’ve never seen that, so not really a cause of confusion.

24. I’m from San Diego, and have friends from New Orleans (who still live there). If someone said LA, with no additional context indicating otherwise, I would assume they meant Los Angeles.

    I will say, people don’t often “say” state abbreviations. If someone is talking about Michigan, they say Michigan, not MI. In the same vein, if someone is talking about Louisiana, they say Louisiana, not LA.

25. Lewiston-Auburn Maine (aka LA) just entered the chat.

26. L.A. is Las Angeles. LA is Louisianna, and L A is Lower Alabama. (Yes they really refer to it as L.A.)

27. Well, I’m from neither of those places, but I can tell you that I almost always read “LA” as “Los Angeles” until my critical thinking skills kick in (Shreveport, LOS ANGELES?!?! Oh, wait…)

28. Simple: it’s never Louisiana.

29. LA CA, or SoCal.

    Also, not that many people reference Louisiana so….

30. If it’s in address lines, it’s really easy being one a town and the other a state.

31. Not from either of those places but since greater Los Angeles has a substantially higher population that the state of Louisiana, I’m going to assume you’re talking about the city unless there’s enough information to tell me otherwise. Also people usually refer to the names of the state. I wouldn’t say I’m from OH just because that’s the state abbreviation.

32. LA and L.A. LA is just an abbreviation for the state postal code, that’s only used in writing. We say “L.A.” as an abbreviation for Los Angeles.

33. In conversation, you would never refer to Louisiana as “L.A.,” but people refer to Los Angeles as “L.A.” all the time

34. When you’re in Los Angeles, no one is talking about Louisiana so you don’t have to worry about it 😂 (joking but also not joking)