When and how do we use e.g., i.e. and etc.?
We see e.g., i.e. and etc. all the time in English texts. All three actually come from Latin (they’re abbreviations for Latin expressions).
It’s not always apparent what exactly these abbreviations mean. There’s also the problem of how to read them, so let’s take a look at e.g., i.e. and etc. one by one.
e.g. = exempli gratia
The abbreviation e.g. means for example, and that is usually how we say it when reading a text aloud. We’d never read it as the Latin exempli gratia.
We use e.g. before an item or a list of items that represents an example of something previously stated:
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As an alternative to for example, we can use such as.
i.e. = id est
The abbreviation i.e. comes from the Latin id est, which means that is, that means or meaning.
We use i.e. when we want to clarify the meaning of something. When reading a text aloud, we simply read the abbreviation as it is written: /aɪ’i:/.
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etc. = et cetera
This is the abbreviation of et cetera, again from Latin.
We use etc. at the end of an incomplete list. It tells the reader (or listener) that the list is longer but all items were not included.
We always read etc. aloud as /et’setərə/, never as the individual letters e, t and c.
One alternative to etc. is and so on. However, some people consider etc. and and so on lazy writing: they prefer to use such as.
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Alex - January 31, 2021, 7:10 pm
I like how we can interchange i.e. and ‘meaning’ and ‘that means’. It’s quite easy to understand with these examples.