id est

Have I ever typed an entry about id est? I seem to think I have, but this one will be better, I promise.

I guess I'm thinking that at this point, since I've already proclaimed my nerdiness regarding punctuation by typing an entire entry about the ellipsis, why stop now? I also just finished reading the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss, which is also why I'm giving my "inner stickler" permission to grab the microphone from the drunk at the karaoke bar and have a go at "Friends in Low Places."

Help!  I got lost in the cleverness of my own metaphor.

So anyway, back to id est. Italicized? Id est? Whatever, who cares. Id est means that is to say. Commonly recognized by the abbreviation: "i.e." And oft confused and (incorrectly) interchanged with the abbreviation for exempli gratia "e.g." (Funny, I felt the need to italicize exempli gratia, but not id est. Not quite sure why. "It's a mystery!"). Guess I'll try to be consistent.

Exempli gratia: for the sake of example, or simply "for example."

It's funny to me that people think I'm such a nerd. I'll not argue with anyone making such a declaration. But I just think it's funny because once I looked up the differences between id est and exempli gratia (Interesting. Now I'm italicizing both of them), I never mixed them up again. How could I? They mean completely different things. Do we mix up MCI and IBM just because they both have an I in them and have 3 letters? Because those are the only similarities between i.e. and e.g. They both have an "e" and they are both 2 letters.

Correct usage of "i.e." She used the ellipsis incorrectly about 8 times throughout her publication (i.e., it was never typed correctly).

This sentence translates to: She used the ellipsis incorrectly about 8 times throughout her publication (that is to say, it was never typed correctly). If we were to misuse "e.g." in this example, the sentence would read: She used the ellipsis incorrectly about 8 times throughout her publication (for example, it was never typed correctly).

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but using "for example" in place of "that is to say" just doesn't work, does it?