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Greetings fellow forum users.
I am now going to teach a small lesson in the proper usage of the Latin phrases id est (i.e.) and exempli gratia (e.g.).
id est (i.e.) that is "That is (to say)" in the sense of "that means" and "which means", or "in other words", or sometimes "in this case", depending on the context; may be followed by a comma, or not, depending on style. He did not answer, i.e., he remained quiet.
exempli gratia (e.g.) 'for the sake of example' or simply 'for example' ...a basketball player (e.g., Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan)
Both reference words synonymous with the preceding statement. Both are always punctuated as shown, sometimes in parentheses. Their usage is quite different and they are oftentimes confused with each other.
Here is the example from a recent post in the general forum that finally pushed me over the edge, i.e., i was thereafter compelled to write this post.
Can i make the background music myself, IE guitar?
Substituting i.e., with "that is to say" we get the following run-on gibberish: "Can i make the background music myself, that is to say guitar."
Here the gentleman's intention is to inquire whether or not his own guitar will be acceptable for producing the required background music. The guitar in question is provided as a possible example to his previous inquiry and so the abbreviation e.g. is more suitable:
"Can i make the background music myself, e.g., with guitar?"
Substituting e.g. with "for example" and adding one word we get a slightly more comprehensible question: "Can i make the background music myself, for example, with guitar?"
These two abbreviations are seldom used in questions, however. The above examples are only used to provide the strict explanation of how the words function in the sentence.
Of course, he should have just written "Can I make the music myself with guitar?"
What follows are some TL/SC themed examples to hopefully illustrate the difference between these two often confused Latin phrases:
"With all the offensive memes being thrown around the SC forum-scene these days, e.g., rickroll, fail, hwaiting,1a2a3a, I'm glad to be in the presence of such proactive and ban-happy moderators, i.e. I love TL mods"
"At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, e.g., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively.
+ Show Spoiler [trick question] +both e.g. and i.e. can work here. i had it as i.e. originally but changed it. e.g. is more appropriate since JD and Calm are not the only strong zerg users. e.g. is more correct since i am listing merely listing examples of strong Zerg players and not trying to identify THE definitive strongest two. trick question!
"Certain builds are better or worse depending on your opponent's style and the map, (e.g. 14 Nexus on Python can catch a Terran opponent off-guard if he scouts it too late and is unprepared for a counter) i.e., "the optimal build order" varies from game to game.
"The recent trend of high-level players, e.g., Lzgamer, Ret, and Kawaiirice, broadcasting their live streamed games is a windfall for all noobs who take the time to watch and learn.
"Bobby is not a fan of the high-money BGH style maps, i.e., he only plays Iccup maps on the ladder."
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Just felt i should post here
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i always mix these up :C
thanks!
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lol Izzy...
I didn't really know how to use these properly tbh.
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Hey thanks for that, apparently I've always been using i.e. wrongly. We don't have those two abbreviations in German and I've always assumed i.e. meant in exemplo.
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This isn't taught in schools that I know of and is usually something picked up unconsciously. I think of them as "as in" and "for example".
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On October 19 2009 15:35 Orome wrote:
Hey thanks for that, apparently I've always been using i.e. wrongly. We don't have those two abbreviations in German and I've always assumed i.e. meant in exemplo.
glad to help. interestingly, i learned the meanings of these as well as the 3rd most often used latin abbreviation from reading translations of German philosophy
videlicet (viz.) "namely", "that is to say", "as follows".
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Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference.
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i understand the difference! but remembering which one is which is harder :D but thanks.
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Nice one, i.e. I liked your post and am now 100 percent sure that I am using these abbreviated phrases correctly.
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On October 19 2009 15:41 KrAzYfoOL wrote:
Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference.
i see "would of" instead of "would have" so frequently it makes me wanna cry.
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For the longest time, I thought 'i.e.' stood for 'In English'. This notion took a very long time to dispel since it barely changes the usage.
It's/its is also bizarre, because normally 'apostrophe s' indicates property, whereas "it's" is a contraction of 'it is', and 'its' is the possessive.
On October 19 2009 15:56 pangshai wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:41 KrAzYfoOL wrote:
Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference. i see "would of" instead of "would have" so frequently it makes me wanna cry.
"Would've" is a contraction of 'would have', but is pronounced like 'would of'. Hence the confusion.
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On October 19 2009 15:56 pangshai wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:41 KrAzYfoOL wrote:
Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference. i see "would of" instead of "would have" so frequently it makes me wanna cry.
those guys dont know that their gonna go theyre for there lunch break.
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On October 19 2009 15:21 omninmo wrote:Here is the example from a recent post in the general forum that finally pushed me over the edge, i.e., i was thereafter compelled to write this post. Hahaha I read IE as an abbreviation for Internet Explorer and thought it had some kind of guitar app.
On October 19 2009 15:21 omninmo wrote:
"At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, e.g., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively."
Pretty sure the "e.g." here should be an i.e., i.e., "At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, i.e., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively."
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On October 19 2009 16:04 29 fps wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:56 pangshai wrote:On October 19 2009 15:41 KrAzYfoOL wrote:
Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference. i see "would of" instead of "would have" so frequently it makes me wanna cry. those guys dont know that their gonna go theyre for there lunch break.
I see what you did their.
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On October 19 2009 16:04 29 fps wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:56 pangshai wrote:On October 19 2009 15:41 KrAzYfoOL wrote:
Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference. i see "would of" instead of "would have" so frequently it makes me wanna cry. those guys dont know that their gonna go theyre for there lunch break.
Haha my eyes are bleeding now.
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Weird. I remeber my Latin teacher telling us that "e.g." is an abbreviation for "ex gregis", something like "out of the many".
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oh they are latin phrases? i figured out what they imply from reading experience, but didn't know what they actually stood for
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I always thought i.e. meant In Example, but I guess that works.
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
lol thansk , very informative ! :D:D
oh and i absolutely detest "of" being substituted for " 've " -_-;;;;;;;;
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On October 19 2009 15:56 pangshai wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:41 KrAzYfoOL wrote:
Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference. i see "would of" instead of "would have" so frequently it makes me wanna cry.
Please, someone give examples, i.e. elaborate!
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"it would of been a good idea" instead of "it would've been a good idea"
i guess it's just a homophonic mistake, but i've found it sneaking into college level work
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On October 19 2009 16:07 ThunderGod wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:21 omninmo wrote:
"At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, e.g., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively."
Pretty sure the "e.g." here should be an i.e., i.e., "At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, i.e., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively."
Thundergod, you're wrong here, "i.e." is inappropriate in this circumstance.
And omninmo, you're wrong in this case too, you just forced the "e.g." in there unnecessarily.
The sentence would be better off without "i.e." or "e.g.":
"At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively."
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heh, i never used i.e., only e.g.
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On October 19 2009 16:07 ThunderGod wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:21 omninmo wrote:Here is the example from a recent post in the general forum that finally pushed me over the edge, i.e., i was thereafter compelled to write this post. Can i make the background music myself, IE guitar? Hahaha I read IE as an abbreviation for Internet Explorer and thought it had some kind of guitar app. Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:21 omninmo wrote:
"At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, e.g., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively."
Pretty sure the "e.g." here should be an i.e., i.e., "At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, i.e., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively."
actually, you are right. i had it as i.e. originally but changed it. e.g. is more appropriate since JD and Calm are not the only strong zerg users. e.g. is more correct since i am merely listing examples of strong Zerg players and not trying to identify THE definitive strongest two. trick question!
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Thanks for the grammer leson! e.g I learned a lot.
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On October 19 2009 17:53 dka wrote:
Thanks for the grammer leson! e.g I learned a lot.
no you havent... you meant "i.e. I learned a lot" because you are not making an example of it... ¬¬
anyways kudos to the OP
usually a grammar lesson topic is annoying and pedantic but this one was excellent.
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
very helpful
<3
I am pretty terrible at this stuff hehe
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On October 19 2009 16:17 alffla wrote:
lol thansk , very informative ! :D:D
oh and i absolutely detest "of" being substituted for " 've " -_-;;;;;;;;
Who dares to commit such atrocity?!
Personally I also hate when people:
1. Confuse "you're" with "your"
2. Do not use apostrophes in abbreviations such as "I'm", "don't", "I've" etc.
And sadly, it's usually native english speakers (yes Americans, I'm looking at you) who do that.
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On October 19 2009 17:06 omninmo wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 16:07 ThunderGod wrote:On October 19 2009 15:21 omninmo wrote:Here is the example from a recent post in the general forum that finally pushed me over the edge, i.e., i was thereafter compelled to write this post. Can i make the background music myself, IE guitar? Hahaha I read IE as an abbreviation for Internet Explorer and thought it had some kind of guitar app. On October 19 2009 15:21 omninmo wrote:
"At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, e.g., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively."
Pretty sure the "e.g." here should be an i.e., i.e., "At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, i.e., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively." actually, you are right. i had it as i.e. originally but changed it. i.e. works since JD and Calm ARE two of the strongest members. id est calls attention to this. e.g. is also correct since you are listing examples of strong Zerg players. trick question!
You said "two of its strongest members" and then said "for example" and then named both members. That's not really an example, is it? Well, the other interpretation would be that two of the strongest zergs had won the osl and msl, respectively, but instead of specifying which "two of the strongest members", you just gave two examples of "the strongest members". I.e you were saying that two of the strongest zergs won the osl and msl last season, and that two of the strongest zergs are jaedong and calm, but not that those two pairs of zergs are the same. It's hard to explain concisely or effectively, but if you replace the term "e.g" with "for example" it becomes pretty clear to me that that sentence doesn't make any fucking sense. :D
I.e seems better at least, but still not quite right to me. I could be wrong. But i'm starting to lose interest in this so i'm just going to go to bed. I just want to say that our second grade teachers who tried to get us to make a big deal out of correct grammar, particularly in casual conversation, even in written form, were all stuck-up bitches, and if you bought their crap so are you.
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thanks! yet another tool to add to my grammar nazi arsenal!
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I love these grammar lessons.
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Thank you very much but I already knew that and do not mix these two up. 
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On October 19 2009 18:10 HnR)Insane wrote:I learnt it personally in latin, but I don't think anyone in english class ever really dealt with it. Nearly everyone lacks an understanding of when one is appropriate it seems  With regards to the ""At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, e.g., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively." " i.e. vs e.g. debate, the sentence reads much better without either e.g. or i.e. there. e: I see caldo already said this
I agree. Actually, most of the time these abbreviations can be omitted with proper word choice and punctuation. I was offering the above as a strict but nonetheless correct example. On second thought; however, I feel that if any Latin abbreviation is used here it should be viz.
At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, viz., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively.
viz. is short for videlicet which means "namely".
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On October 19 2009 19:27 omninmo wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 18:10 HnR)Insane wrote:I learnt it personally in latin, but I don't think anyone in english class ever really dealt with it. Nearly everyone lacks an understanding of when one is appropriate it seems With regards to the ""At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, e.g., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively." " i.e. vs e.g. debate, the sentence reads much better without either e.g. or i.e. there. e: I see caldo already said this i agree. actually it should be [snip]
I find sentences with no capatilisation to be particularly annoying.
jk :p
What's actually annoying is seeing 'z' in every second word.
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I want to see a post about "could, would, should" 
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Thank you! I always like these agitated posts of forum members who do know english.
"At the start of the 09/10 Proleague season Zerg was arguably the dominant race with two of its strongest members, e.g., Jaedong and Calm, having won the recent OSL and MSL tournaments respectively. "
I would remove the e.g. altogether in this sentence. i.e. is possible, but e.g... how can you first say "two of its strongest members" and then "for example JD & calm". That is not an example, those ARE the strongest members of the race. Therefore, "in other words JD & Calm".
I think maybe you meant "two of the strongest members" like this:
"there is a group of strongest members which has > 2 members. JD and Calm belong in this group. Along with some other zergs."
While I read it like this:
"There is a group zerg which has more > 2 members. Both the strongest and 2nd strongest members belong to a subgroup which contains 2 members. JD and Calm belong to that subgroup, too."
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Nice, thanks! Grammar police ftw
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I don't know why people feel compelled to go on these long rants about tiny points of English/grammar. If you really felt the need, around three lines would have sufficed.
In any case, the example that "pushed you over the edge" is nitpicking at best. "Can I make the background music myself, that is, guitar" makes perfect sense to me--"i.e. guitar" referring to "the background music". (Of course I'm not seeing it in context.)
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As has been mentioned a few times already, proper sentence structure is preferred over using 'eg' and 'ie'. It is better to have a sentence that flows well. If you feel you can't do so (usually because your sentence is starting to become long and messy) then break up the sentence into shorter ones.
Also, people should note that the use of full stops, whilst sometimes correct, is not always correct. It depends where you are or the context of your writing. So, don't apply that rule blindly. In Australian legal writing, for example, full stops are to be used only to denote the end of a sentence. (You can also see there, that avoiding 'eg', breaking the sentence into two sentences, and instead using 'for example' made for an easier read.)
In any event, it's good to clear up a distinction that many people get wrong. I simply prefer not to use 'eg' and 'ie' though, especially in formal or professional writing.
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader.
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On October 19 2009 15:56 pangshai wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:41 KrAzYfoOL wrote:
Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference. i see "would of" instead of "would have" so frequently it makes me wanna cry.
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On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
As has been mentioned a few times already, proper sentence structure is preferred over using 'eg' and 'ie'. It is better to have a sentence that flows well. If you feel you can't do so (usually because your sentence is starting to become long and messy) then break up the sentence into shorter ones.
Personally, I'm usually only using i.e. and e.g. if I add some more information relevant to the sentence in the brackets (e.g. just like this).
Also 2 (2 more!) very common and very annoying things:
1. Lack of capitalization - a minor issue but an issue still.
2. Lack of punctuation - now this is a HUGE one.
By the way. I hope that TC doesn't mind that I have added this thread into 'Further Reading' section of my blog:
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=89687
Tell me if you don't want it to be there and it shall be removed.
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Grammar cops are heroes
Something that I don't like much is the "there/their"-confusion... :S
Oh and btw:
+ Show Spoiler +
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On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader.
Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable.
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On October 19 2009 21:34 qrs wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader. Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable.
Yes. The question is to what extent? Like I mentioned earlier, there are people here who don't use english as their primary language and using a lot of slang/abbreviations or just poor grammar can make posts very hard to read for them.
I know that it's an english forum and everyone here should be able to communicate in this language but we have to keep in mind that the level of profficiency may vary among the netizens and should put at least minimal effort into making posts so they're easier to comprehend. Not just for those less skilled with languages, but also to avoid confusion since even people extremely familiar with english might misunderstand some posts if they're not formatted correctly or lack in grammar to a degree that allows for 2 or more drastically different interpretations of a short sentence.
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I am very aware of the usage of these acronyms, i.e, e.g, etc. ....
On October 19 2009 21:47 Manit0u wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 21:34 qrs wrote:On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader. Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable. Yes. The question is to what extent? Like I mentioned earlier, there are people here who don't use english as their primary language and using a lot of slang/abbreviations or just poor grammar can make posts very hard to read for them. I know that it's an english forum and everyone here should be able to communicate in this language but we have to keep in mind that the level of profficiency may vary among the netizens and should put at least minimal effort into making posts so they're easier to comprehend. Not just for those less skilled with languages, but also to avoid confusion since even people extremely familiar with english might misunderstand some posts if they're not formatted correctly or lack in grammar to a degree that allows for 2 or more drastically different interpretations of a short sentence.
I agree with this post. It's hard for me to read stuff on spanish forums because they literally type what you would say. You see a certain word and it looks incredibly incorrect and it's difficult to translate. You have to take the perspective of a person who doesn't know the language. Go to a spanish forum or a french forum and try to participate in regular discussion when all they use is slang language. I like to use slang English and occasionally I do it here, but I try to steer away from doing things that would make no sense to someone who would otherwise never be able to translate it correctly. That's where you get jokes that are missed... (not saying anything specific about a certain user group :p)
Though I will admit its fun to teach europeans slang-English (aka American!!!!) so it spreads like a disease.
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people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays.
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Wow. I never knew the difference and never took the time to look it up. Thanks!
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On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays.
* Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. *
the worst
Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc.
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On October 19 2009 23:57 Amber[LighT] wrote:I am very aware of the usage of these acronyms, i.e, e.g, etc. .... Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 21:47 Manit0u wrote:On October 19 2009 21:34 qrs wrote:On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader. Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable. Yes. The question is to what extent? Like I mentioned earlier, there are people here who don't use english as their primary language and using a lot of slang/abbreviations or just poor grammar can make posts very hard to read for them. I know that it's an english forum and everyone here should be able to communicate in this language but we have to keep in mind that the level of profficiency may vary among the netizens and should put at least minimal effort into making posts so they're easier to comprehend. Not just for those less skilled with languages, but also to avoid confusion since even people extremely familiar with english might misunderstand some posts if they're not formatted correctly or lack in grammar to a degree that allows for 2 or more drastically different interpretations of a short sentence. I agree with this post. It's hard for me to read stuff on spanish forums because they literally type what you would say. You see a certain word and it looks incredibly incorrect and it's difficult to translate. You have to take the perspective of a person who doesn't know the language. Go to a spanish forum or a french forum and try to participate in regular discussion when all they use is slang. I like to use English slang and occasionally I do it here, but I try to steer away from doing things that would make no sense to someone who would otherwise never be able to translate it correctly. That's where you get jokes that are missed... (not saying anything specific about a certain user group :p) Though I will admit its fun to teach europeans slang-English (aka American!!!!) so it spreads like a disease.
nooo not another global-cultural soldier
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On October 20 2009 00:37 Manit0u wrote:Show nested quote +On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays. * Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. * the worst Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc.
im confused.... ? ;D
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tl;dr
i.e. = in other words
e.g. = for example
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Interesting, I never knew the difference between e.g. and ie.
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On October 20 2009 00:46 Sadist wrote:Show nested quote +On October 20 2009 00:37 Manit0u wrote:On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays. * Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. * the worst Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc. im confused.... ? ;D
You always put "the" in front of extreme cases. So it's not ugliest picture but the ugliest picture for example.
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Kau
Canada3500 Posts
On October 20 2009 05:24 Manit0u wrote:Show nested quote +On October 20 2009 00:46 Sadist wrote:On October 20 2009 00:37 Manit0u wrote:On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays. * Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. * the worst Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc. im confused.... ? ;D You always put "the" in front of extreme cases. So it's not ugliest picture but the ugliest picture for example.
Try your best. Do your worst.
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"Can i make the background music myself, IE guitar?"
he's asking whether he could make the background music by himself, then by saying "IE guitar" he clarifies that he means doing so by playing guitar.. what's wrong with that?
edit: obviously it should have been "IE by playing guitar", but no one is that picky about grammar online anyway.
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On October 19 2009 21:34 qrs wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 20:44 Trang wrote:
Edit: PS qrs, it may seem pedantic, but it's important to be precise with grammar. If you are writing in a formal or professional setting, mistakes in grammar and spelling leave a very negative impression on the reader. Yes, but a forum isn't a formal or professional setting. Some of the informalities of speech should be allowable.
I think you're missing my point. I was under the impression that this thread was teaching aspects of proper grammar, and not forum grammar. If you're going to teach grammar, you want to be precise about every little point. It's up to the readers what rules they want to apply in what settings, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be taught the rules properly.
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^The post of mine that you responded to:
On October 19 2009 20:23 qrs wrote:
In any case, the example that "pushed you over the edge" is nitpicking at best. "Can I make the background music myself, that is, guitar" makes perfect sense to me--"i.e. guitar" referring to "the background music". (Of course I'm not seeing it in context.) The example in question was from the forum.
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Look up "Grammar Girl" Podcast if you suck at this kind of stuff. Every episode is a different commonly misused English word or punctuation.
I find people who really gripe with users that make a grammar mistake seem to be ignorant of 100s of errors in their own writing. On an internet forum where many of us write English as a second language, all that matters is that you try and your message is clear. Most errors come from people trying to write English phonetically.
What's more irritating to me is when people write redundantly, which usually happens with native speakers trying to sound smart.
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On October 20 2009 05:57 Kau wrote:Show nested quote +On October 20 2009 05:24 Manit0u wrote:On October 20 2009 00:46 Sadist wrote:On October 20 2009 00:37 Manit0u wrote:On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays. * Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. * the worst Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc. im confused.... ? ;D You always put "the" in front of extreme cases. So it's not ugliest picture but the ugliest picture for example. Try your best. Do your worst.
His point was the usage of a preposition when denoting the extreme example. "Your" is still a preposition. You would never say "try your better;" rather, you'd say "try better."
As for the OP, I've long since given up trying to correct every grammatical mistake people make in online environments, let alone in day to day life. Most people just don't really care to speak/write English well, and that's not going to change any bit by me patronizing their small mistakes. But then again, that's why I also tend to end up only talking to people who can write/speak well--it's a lot less of a headache.
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On October 20 2009 13:27 gchan wrote:Show nested quote +On October 20 2009 05:57 Kau wrote:On October 20 2009 05:24 Manit0u wrote:On October 20 2009 00:46 Sadist wrote:On October 20 2009 00:37 Manit0u wrote:On October 20 2009 00:12 Sadist wrote:people who miss-use(sp ) worst/worse are by far the saddest creatures ever. How the FUCK do you do that? I see it all the time nowadays. * Grammar Police warning! An error has been detected. * the worst Just like: the biggest, the greatest, the smallest etc. im confused.... ? ;D You always put "the" in front of extreme cases. So it's not ugliest picture but the ugliest picture for example. Try your best. Do your worst. His point was the usage of a preposition when denoting the extreme example. "Your" is still a preposition. You would never say "try your better;" rather, you'd say "try better."
Actually, I was talking about using the scaling (good, better, the best) when being used as an adjective
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very wise choice of a thread subject, good job man. i got them confused a lot too
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The simple solution is not to use either, not only because it's easy to misuse them, but also because they tend to make you look like you're just trying to sound smart (whether or not that's really the case). I'm all for using the right word for the right situation, but "i.e." and "e.g." don't mean anything that can't be rendered in plain English ("that is" and "for example", usually).
my 0.02
Edit: I didn't mean to imply that this thread was unnecessary though --- quite the opposite... "Would of" just kills me every time. ><
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they tend to make you look like you're just trying to sound smart That's subjective. To me they're just normal abbreviations.
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great OP.
loved this post. also is something that bothers me too. *_*
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On October 19 2009 16:04 29 fps wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2009 15:56 pangshai wrote:On October 19 2009 15:41 KrAzYfoOL wrote:
Please do another one of these for your/you're because I notice an embarrassingly large amount of people don't know the difference. i see "would of" instead of "would have" so frequently it makes me wanna cry. those guys dont know that their gonna go theyre for there lunch break.
OMG MY BRAIN
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i.e. = "in other words"
e.g.= "for example"
got it! thanks!
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I learned this years ago in school, assumed everyone else had too :o
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EPT
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