i.e vs e.g
Happy Birthday, Kirsten! I sure hope you aren't cooking tonight! (Step up, Nathan and Chris)
I know that you and your family place such an emphasis on birthdays so I hope you feel it too.
Hopefully we can manage to get together this week so I can help you celebrate. Happy Birthday!
So, last night at supper when I was receiving my weekly grammar lesson, I discovered that I have been misusing i.e.. Apparently it means 'in other words' and not 'for example'. I don't think I am alone in this error because I've seen it before but I like to learn when I'm wrong. I'm constantly learning!
I don't want to make this a post about when I'm wrong but I never used to get the cliche "Six of one; half a dozen of the other" either. For years I thought it was "six of one half, a dozen of the other" so the context in which people would use it never made sense to me. Apparently, I was wrong but now it all makes sense. I use it all the time. (If you are someone who speaks with me often, you have probably heard me use that cliche. It's because, at 31 years old, it's new to me!)
Now I'll be using i.e. all the time.
There has to be other things out there that people have recently learned that probably should have been more common knowledge. Do tell.
posted by Joy and Darrin @ 9:06 AM
14 Comments:
Wow! I never knew that! I'm a bit of a grammar geek myself.
Thanks for the tip!
This is Natalie (i.e. Tim Blackmore's cousin)
Wow you're allowed to talk at supper...not me. Tanya says that when I'm in her presence I need to raise my hand if I need something...and only if she acknowledges me with a special, prearranged hand gesture am I allowed to speak. 5 words or less in the general rule.
You're so lucky!!
AK
Thanks for the happy birthday. Of course we can get together.
I too have used i.e. improperly. Who knew? I'm always screwing up grammar.
I always think of i.e. as "that is".
If you want to say for example you can just say "e.g.".
My question is how should I have ended those two sentence, i.e. should the period be inside or outside of the quotation marks?
If you can answer that then I too will learn something new today and we'll both be better people.
I'm not a grammar expert but I believe that the punctuation would go on the outside of the quotations since the period is not part of the quotable portion.
Hey Joy!
Heres Johns blog! http://www.giantsmind.blogspot.com/
Oh...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIRSTEN!!!!
Court
Hmmmm, i have never really thought of that. I am horrible with grammer stuff, I think mostly just because I am too lazy half the time when I am writing etc to make sure things are proper. It drives Chris nuts, he is constantly correcting me.
i too recently discovered the "ie" definition. luckily it wasn't something i had used a lot in the past...
Doesn't the punctuation mark go inside the quotation marks??
I believe it does Anonymous...
(though that is the case that always makes me second guess myself...when you are asking a question but the quote itself is not a question)
I'm leaning towards putting the period inside the quotation marks. Does that mean the period after the g is the period that ends the sentence?
Sorry to hijack your post Joy.
Watching The Office was definitely worth missing 1/2 hr of studying for my midterm, which I'm taking in ~ 20min. It was laugh-out-loud funny. Lynn's mom was watching it with me though so that made things a little weird. She asked me if it was a gay show and was pretty much frowning most of the time. I tried not to laugh but sometimes I couldn't help it.
Well I wanted to end the debate about the quotation marks and pucntuation, I also wanted to prove I was right. I consulted an expert on the situation, my english professor. The ruling is that the punctuation only goes on the inside if it is a question mark or exclamation mark, so if it's a period it goes outside of the quotation marks. So Kris your original comment with "that is" and "e.g." having the period outside are correct.
Well, usually I believe that if I did something it must have been correct. Sometimes I second guess that belief system but I usually regret it. When will I ever learn?
Thanks for clearing this up.
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