When to use e.g. versus i.e.
April 26th 2008 05:42
The difference between "e.g." and "i.e." confounds many people. Since childhood, I'd thought they were interchangeable, and it was many years before I found out that they were not. It was a shock, for I'd been using them interchangeably for so long. It was especially worrisome that I'd been using them and no one had bothered to correct me. After a while, it dawned on me that people never corrected me because they probably didn't know the difference either.
So if the meanings and usage of i.e. and e.g. confuse you too, let me disabuse you of any notions that they are the same. Simply put, e.g. means "for example" (from the Latin exempli gratia), and i.e. means "that is" (from the Latin id est). "For example" and "that is" are not synonymous; therefore, neither are e.g. and i.e.
Now, given what I just told you, how would you fill in the blanks in sentences A and B?
A: I like to play first-person shooter games, ____, Quake, Doom, and Portal.
B: Unfortunately, some first-person shooters make people uncomfortable, ____, they get motion sickness when they play for too long.
If you think that "for example"/"e.g." goes in sentence A and "that is"/"i.e." goes in sentence B, you're correct. Sentence A is straightforward: it lists three examples that give additional information about the preceding statement. Sentence B is similar, but the second statement doesn't contain examples; it clarifies and explains the first statement. When you write something and want to say something more explicit or specific about it, use "i.e".
Now, consider the following example:
C: I don't really like ultra-violent games, e.g., Halo and Half-Life.
Sentence C is like sentence A; it makes a statement, followed by a few examples. If you were to revise the sentence to use "i.e.", the meaning of the sentence changes:
D: I don't really like Halo and Half-Life, i.e., ultra-violent games.
There's a big difference between sentences C and D. Sentence C says that I don't like violent games, and Halo and Half-Life are but examples of such games. On the other hand, sentence D tells you that I don't like Halo and Half-Life specifically because I don't like violent games (and not for some other reason).
Using e.g. and i.e. with commas
Sources vary on this rule. Some say to use only a comma before the term, and some say to use a comma only after the term. Others say to use both. I always use both commas because it's incorrect to omit them when full words are used, i.e., it would be incorrect to write something like "I like spicy food for example chili, curry, and jambalaya," or "I ate most of the curry that is two-thirds of it."
A few more things to remember are that "e.g." and "i.e." are always in lower case and plain text, and they cannot be used to start a sentence. Also, Bill Bryson notes in his Dictionary of Troublesome Words that using "etc." with "e.g." is redundant. You need not add "etc." or "and so on" because examples are by definition part of a larger group of items or ideas.
So if the meanings and usage of i.e. and e.g. confuse you too, let me disabuse you of any notions that they are the same. Simply put, e.g. means "for example" (from the Latin exempli gratia), and i.e. means "that is" (from the Latin id est). "For example" and "that is" are not synonymous; therefore, neither are e.g. and i.e.
Now, given what I just told you, how would you fill in the blanks in sentences A and B?
A: I like to play first-person shooter games, ____, Quake, Doom, and Portal.
B: Unfortunately, some first-person shooters make people uncomfortable, ____, they get motion sickness when they play for too long.
If you think that "for example"/"e.g." goes in sentence A and "that is"/"i.e." goes in sentence B, you're correct. Sentence A is straightforward: it lists three examples that give additional information about the preceding statement. Sentence B is similar, but the second statement doesn't contain examples; it clarifies and explains the first statement. When you write something and want to say something more explicit or specific about it, use "i.e".
Now, consider the following example:
C: I don't really like ultra-violent games, e.g., Halo and Half-Life.
Sentence C is like sentence A; it makes a statement, followed by a few examples. If you were to revise the sentence to use "i.e.", the meaning of the sentence changes:
D: I don't really like Halo and Half-Life, i.e., ultra-violent games.
There's a big difference between sentences C and D. Sentence C says that I don't like violent games, and Halo and Half-Life are but examples of such games. On the other hand, sentence D tells you that I don't like Halo and Half-Life specifically because I don't like violent games (and not for some other reason).
Using e.g. and i.e. with commas
Sources vary on this rule. Some say to use only a comma before the term, and some say to use a comma only after the term. Others say to use both. I always use both commas because it's incorrect to omit them when full words are used, i.e., it would be incorrect to write something like "I like spicy food for example chili, curry, and jambalaya," or "I ate most of the curry that is two-thirds of it."
A few more things to remember are that "e.g." and "i.e." are always in lower case and plain text, and they cannot be used to start a sentence. Also, Bill Bryson notes in his Dictionary of Troublesome Words that using "etc." with "e.g." is redundant. You need not add "etc." or "and so on" because examples are by definition part of a larger group of items or ideas.
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Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Current Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
i think i usually write it with a colon
or maybe i use brackets
its probably a toss of the coin really, theres no rhyme or reason to my unconventional punctuation haha
Comment by Irene
Grammar Matters
Cooking Monkey
Your unconventional punctuation is your own style! I'm a technical writer by day, and I'm naturally obsessed with 'correctness' anyway, so I get a little obsessed with my own writing. I mean, if I catch a typo in one of my comments, I will actually go back and correct it. :/