Meet the Clarity twins: two loyal stand-ins that often find themselves mixed up in a grammatical love triangle because of well-meaning writers who use them the wrong way. The Clarity twins—e.g. and i.e.—abbreviate the terms for example and in other words, repectively. These gals—unlike identical twins who sometimes secretly switch boyfriends—are loyal lovers who don't take any nonsense.
However, many writers mistakenly rely on the wrong twin to do the work. For example, a bunch of writers insert i.e. (which means in other words) and then follow with one or more examples to emphasize their prior statement. Others might insert e.g. (which means for example) before writing their statement in a different way. Don’t do that.
Here and now, let us break the chain of clarity confusion with these simple rules:
ü Our first twin, e.g., only has eyes for the letter e that comes from the second word in the phrase for example. She steps in when a writer uses one or more examples to describe something (e.g., fashion, people, or world peace). Here is a way for you to avoid confusion: Before you insert e.g. (or insert i.e. incorrectly), say your sentence aloud and see if it fits. James needs to eat more vegetables (for example, peas, carrots, and spinach).
ü Our second twin, i.e., gives her love to the letter i that comes from the phrase in other words. To avoid confusion with her, before you insert i.e. (or insert e.g. incorrectly), say your sentence aloud, and see if it fits. She threw a fit. In other words, she was mad! Call on the i.e. twin to use other words to say the same thing in a different way. In the example above, “She was mad,” is a different way of saying, “She threw a fit.”
In case you care, here's more:
Our friends south of the border gave us the original Latin words, exempli gratia, which mean, “for the sake of example.” They also came up with id est, which means, "that is". Abbreviate those words, and you get e.g. and i.e., respectively.
Here in America, we like to say, “for example,” but might decide to write e.g. instead. Similarly, we like to say, "in other words," but, on paper, we can write i.e. instead.
Speechwriters beware: it is neither cool nor creative to use e.g. or i.e. verbally. Don’t write a speech for your boss that makes him sound like an idiot. Reserve the Clarity twins for written text only.
Punctuation points:
- Because e.g. and i.e. abbreviate other words, punctuate them with a period after both letters.
- Use a comma before and after the abbreviations unless one of them begins a sentence. For example, My dog eats too much people food, e.g., spaghetti, hot dogs and bacon.
- Separate e.g. or i.e. with either parenthesis or a comma (but not both.) Here’s two examples:
My boss got the best of me today, i.e., he made me very mad.
My boss got the best of me today (i.e., he made me very mad).
- Whether you use parenthesis or commas, the choice is yours. However, most formal writing prefers parenthesis. NOTE: Within parenthesis, you still need the comma after the abbreviation (see example above).
- Avoid overstating your point by adding etc. after e.g. because e.g. already implies an incomplete list.
- If you begin a sentence with i.e. or e.g., that is perfectly fine. Remember to capitalize the first letter.
- As a general rule, do not italicize i.e. or e.g., unless, like me, you are italicizing them for emphasis.
- Remember this cliché: "If it don't fit, don't force it." If e.g. and i.e. still boggle your mind (i.e., you still don’t get it) kick them both to the curb, and just write for example or in other words. The choice is yours. There is no rule that says you have to flirt with the Clarity twins. Anyway, they are already taken.
Keep on writin’ it right!
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