Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 16:57:42 +0100 From: Ceri Davies <ceri@submonkey.net> To: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: i.e. vs. e.g. Message-ID: <20040909155742.GL44674@submonkey.net> In-Reply-To: <200409091047.25148.jhb@FreeBSD.org> References: <20040908201737.GG44674@submonkey.net> <20040908182322.L1034@wonkity.com> <20040909075121.GJ44674@submonkey.net> <200409091047.25148.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
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[-- Attachment #1 --] On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 10:47:24AM -0400, John Baldwin wrote: > On Thursday 09 September 2004 03:51 am, Ceri Davies wrote: > > On Wed, Sep 08, 2004 at 06:27:13PM -0600, Warren Block wrote: > > > On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Ceri Davies wrote: > > > >Apologies in advance for coming over all schoolmaster like, but I've > > > >noticed a few instances where I believe that people are confusing the > > > >terms "i.e." and "e.g.", and so here's a little reminder/summary: > > > > > > > > i.e. can be read as "that is to say". > > > > > > > > e.g. can be read as "for example". > > > > > > The FDP says to avoid contractions. Maybe these should be avoided in > > > the same way. > > > > I think that would be overkill, and if we stopped doing things that we > > did wrong occasionally then there wouldn't be much of FreeBSD left ;-) > > > > I was "just saying" really. > > The reason for avoiding contractions though is to avoid confusing non-native > readers, and I think that that's a good argument for spelling out i.e. as > "that is", and e.g. as "for example" as well unless this type of idiom is > common to more than just English. There's no need to stop using these parts of the language just because people sometimes use them incorrectly. Non-native speakers who have never seen these terms before will have bigger problems. Ceri -- It is not tinfoil, it is my new skin. I am a robot. [-- Attachment #2 --] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFBQH12ocfcwTS3JF8RAi6uAJ0U7GO7AY38wF1gWqN8Nx6oFka1ewCfSnMv EMZy8B5+O+rh+MIHUVvcTeM= =dxrz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----help
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