Two famous, latin abbreviations that so many people seem to get wrong.
i.e. is short for “id est” and should be used for “that is.”
- I strongly recommend the driver of the automobile cease their forward movement at this time, i.e, STOP!
- This weekend, I played with my kids, ran errands, baked bread, cleaned the house, washed the dog, updated my blog, balanced my checkbook, and painted the garage; i.e., I’m tired.
- My child is a natural at sports (i.e., baseball, football, and tennis).
- When the little hand and the big hand are both pointing to 12 (i.e., straight up), it will be noon.
e.g. is short for “exempli gratia” and should be used for “for example.”
- I carry a lot of things in my purse, e.g., my cell phone, wallet, MP3 player, and my glasses.
- A prime number is one that can only be evenly divided by itself and the number one, e.g., one, two, three, five, seven…
The trick is that they often seem interchangeable, as in the following sentences.
- I love vegetables, i.e., things like carrots and celery.
- I love vegetables, e.g., carrots, celery, corn, and so on.
The difference is that the first one (with the “i.e.”) is clarifying exactly what is meant by “vegetables,” whereas the second one is giving actual examples of the loved vegetables.
Still having trouble remembering? Here’s a handy mnemonic device I saw over at Grammar Girl‘s:
A few listeners have also written in to say that they remember the difference between i.e. and e.g. by imagining that i.e. means “in essence,” and e.g. sounds like “egg sample,” and those are good memory tricks too.
As to punctuation, the correct way to write these is with a period after both letters (“i.e.” and “e.g.”), followed by a comma.
I wrote about this many months ago on my own blog. Usually I remember by assigning the french “il est” (he/it is) to i.e. For some reason, that helps me know that i.e. means “that is.” I rarely use e.g. but I too use the “egg sample” memory trick š
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In a way I think this is part of a wider trend to generalise language.
On average, people seem to have a smaller vocabulary these days and reuse one word in a general way rather than using many words with their subtle yet distinct differences in meaning.
It’s true. I think there’s been an overall simplification. I read transcripts of letters that people wrote a hundred years ago and just want to weep because nobody writes letters like that anymore. We’ve forgotten HOW.
I think your examples need some work. You use id est to express an identity – to say that one thing is the same or means the same as another.
“This weekend, I played with my kids, ran errands, baked bread, cleaned the house, washed the dog, updated my blog, balanced my checkbook, and painted the garage; i.e, Iām tired.” “I’m tired” isn’t equivalent; you could have done those things without necessarily becoming tired. “Therefore” is closer to the meaning than ‘i.e.’ is.
“My child is a natural at sports (i.e, baseball, football, and tennis).” Again, baseball, football and tennis aren’t all the sports that exist – they can’t be equivalent to “sports”. This is one that maybe should have used an ‘e.g.’ instead.
“This weekend, I played with my kids, ran errands, baked bread, cleaned the house, washed the dog, updated my blog, balanced my checkbook, and painted the garage; i.e, Iām tired.”
This sentence has too many commas, too few periods and a misuse of ‘i.e.’
Okay, but there again, if you have room on the page, why use abbreviations at all? As a technical writer I’ve never been faced with the need to use them — there’s always been plenty of space on the page. I think abbreviations are clunky and hold up the flow of prose.
“”””Itās true. I think thereās been an overall simplification. I read transcripts of letters that people wrote a hundred years ago and just want to weep because nobody writes letters like that anymore. Weāve forgotten HOW.””””
You’re obviously not intelligent. The reason 100 year old letters sound so great is because only a SMALL FRACTION of the people could WRITE in the first place back then. That same small fraction still writes like that today. Even text messaging preteens are more literate than the average adult 100 years ago. Contrary to elitist thinking, literacy and reading are both growing by LEAPS and BOUNDS all across the world. Trends are changing, reading through BOOKS is falling but other mediums are picking up the slack.
Don’t miss the forest for the tree folks.
It’s agree–I think abbreviations are over-used, too. (I wrote about that here.) If people are going to use them, though, they should use them correctly! (grin)
As to worldwide literacy, yes, of course there are more literate people now than there were 100 years ago, but here in the U.S.? Back in 1908? I think there were more people who could read than people who could not, and over a distance, the main (only, really) means of communication was by letter. People just don’t write letters any more. (Yes, it’s a generalization, but, really, they don’t!) And, don’t be insulting.
“As to punctuation, the correct way to write these is with a period after both letters (āi.e.ā and āe.g.ā), followed by a comma.”
“I strongly recommend the driver of the automobile cease their forward movement at this time, i.e, STOP!”
..um, I think you’re missing a period after the ‘e’, which is kind of ironic considering the name of this site is ‘punctualityrules’
Oh, and mmorpg, you’re saying that 100 year old letters sound so great because only a small fraction of people could write in the first place, but.. that makes no sense. The number of people who can write doesn’t connect to the quality of their writing. Just because only two people on the entire face of the earth can write, doesn’t mean that they’re going to be great at it.
You’re obviously not aware of what the heck you’re talking about.
Yes, the name of the site IS ‘punctualityrules’, but, hilariously enough, punctuality has nothing to do with punctuation.
@Daniel–That’s why it’s a play on words!
–Deb’s last blog post..Linguist vs GrammarianāThe Fallout
@Deb – I’m just stumbled across your site and thoroughly enjoyed your article, although, as Torgo says, your ‘i.e.’ examples could use some work.
I’m guessing that you’re a better grammarian than a mathematician, as your list of prime numbers is wrong. One is not a prime number, despite appearing to satisfy the definition that you give. š®
Well, I’m NOT a mathematician, but could have sworn that one was on the list my math teachers taught when I was in school. But, since that’s not a field in which I can claim any expertise, I’ll take your word for it (grin).
And, I know, I really need to improve the examples. One of these days, I will.
–Deb’s last blog post..Linguist vs GrammarianāThe Fallout
@Deb – Indeed! Unfortunately I’m not quite as enthusiastic about punctuality as I am about punctuation! ^_^;
Well, I’ve talked about punctuality, too:
Timely
–Deb’s last blog post..Linguist vs GrammarianāThe Fallout
I think what Deb was getting at with the 100 year old letters is that people nowadays don’t write like they used to. Letters today are emails that use too many abbreviations and all that annoying stuff. Not everyone is the most intelligent at writing, but for those people to write to each other was their only means of communication long distance because not everyone could afford a telephone. Letters didn’t take 3 days in the post to send out. It took weeks. People then could spill their hearts in letters. Words are one of the most powerful means of love. Music is the other. (I’m a music major in college. ^.^)
And, no, not all text-messaging teens are average reading level. My sister writes in “txt” because she only texts, and she’s 17. *sigh*
I’m SO bookmarking this one for future reference!!! There are always times in my writing where I want to use i.e. or e.g. but don’t know which one is appropriate so I refrain from using it all-together.
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I’m SO bookmarking this one for future reference!!! There are always times in my writing where I want to use i.e. or e.g. but don’t know which one is appropriate so I refrain from using it all-together.