i.e. and e.g.

[mollykins]

whats the difference?

[The Builder]

eg is, I think, "exempli gratia" ...................... meaning "for example"
ie is "id est"................ meaning "that is"

[mollykins]

but don't 'for example' and 'that is' mean the same?

[The Builder]

oh, I see what you mean Molly ................... ie is a definite reference to something, whereas eg refers, not to anything in particular, but to an indefinite example taken from any number of possibilities....

I don't think I'm explaining this very well................... LOL

[mollykins]

i understand now . . . i think

[mollykins]

so is i.e. when there is only one or two things and e.g. one or two things from a large list?

[factor-fiction]

I can't see how i.e. and e.g. could mean the same thing. One means 'for example' and is followed by an example; the other means 'that is' and is followed by a stement of what 'that is' is.

[The Builder]

I'm trying to think of examples that might demonstrate better than I can...............
if I said "I want to do something today........... eg play football" Football comes from a previously unspecified list of possibilities. It could be anything.
I wouldn't say ............. " .I want to do something today................ ie play football" ......... that would make no sense because I would need to have specified previously that "football" is a possibility........

[sddsddean]

Example
" ...think of a farm animal (eg a cow or a sheep)..."
" ...the cows were taken into the building to milked (ie the dairy)..."

Rotten examples, but thats all I could think of off the top of my head!!

[saxy_jag]

sddsddean's got it in a nutshell, I reckon.

'i.e.' refers to something specific - "the victim, i.e. the bloke who was thumped, was the one who reported the incident."

'e.g.' refers to more general examples - "many dog breeds, e.g. rottweilers and alsatians, are thought to be vicious.

I find it helps to think of 'i.e.' as 'that is' and 'e.g.' as 'example given'.

It's come up at work recently. We're undergoing job evaluation and the person who's typed up the job reports has labelled the examples of our tasks as 'i.e.', making it look as though that's the only task we do for certain aspects of the job, whereas what we've given are just typical examples from a range of tasks.

[Quizmonster]

In effect, ie means "that is to say" and it introduces another more easily understood way of putting what has already been said. It does not introduce an illustrative example, for which eg is the proper formula.
That's from Fowler's Modern English Usage, generally seen as a kind of 'bible' of our language.

[heathfield]

Punctuation, QM? E.g., i.e. ;-)

[Quizmonster]

Aw, come on, H! Chambers offers both eg and ie exactly as such with their 'punctuated' versions just as alternatives. I'm happy to go with that.

[heathfield]

Guess I'm more of a traditionalist, QM. (Or an old fuddyduddy, as some would say!). On the other hand, I find that where these letters aren't punctuated, the smooth flow of my reading is interrupted,. My brain thinks I've come across a typographical error, and tries to work out what the correct word might be. Damned annoying.

[Quizmonster]

I'm probably older than you are, H, but I do happily accept some 'modernisms'. I'm no great believer in "to-day/to-morrow" with a hyphen, for example, though that is how I was taught to write them. I'm all for hyphens where they actually allow words to flow. One of my greatest bugbears is the Americanism for 'colleague'...ie (or i.e.) coworker. When I read it, I always 'hear' it as cow-orker. No one pronounces co-operative as cooperative, do they? But we'll just have to agree to differ on ie/eg. Cheers