e.g. versus i.e.

I’ve been doing a lot of editing documents lately and it has come to my attention that I never knew the difference between i.e. and e.g., and have therefore used them interchangeably. That’s probably not a great idea now that I’m writing for a wider audience than my friends who read this blog so I looked it up. Here’s what I found.

“I.e.” stands for the Latin phrase ‘id est’ or that is. “I.e.” is used in place of “in other words,” or “it/that is.” One uses i.e. when one wants to specify a previous point or re-phrase something to catch a different nuance of meaning.

“E.g.” is also Latin, though it stands for ‘exempli gratia’, which translates as for the sake of an example. One uses e.g. when an example is needed, but one wants to imply that the examples given are just some of the many possible examples.

Some examples:

posted by Alex Herder on 8 July 2008
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comment

  1. oh you. you and your words.

    — stephj · Jul 8, 11:39 AM · #

  2. writing tips—great idea for a series of articles! but then, I was an English major…

    — Kristin · Jul 8, 02:36 PM · #

  3. Great idea or death by blog? No, I think it could be cool. Eats, shoots, and leaves was an amazing foray into all the fun that can be had with grammar and etymology. On a side note, don’t you hate when people spell grammar with an “e”.

    — alex · Jul 8, 03:27 PM · #

  4. Yes, I do!

    Grrr to all those with bad grammer. They’re’s no place for them.

    — Melissa · Jul 30, 08:41 AM · #

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