{"id":1444,"date":"2016-08-08T21:00:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T01:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/?p=1444"},"modified":"2018-07-03T17:09:49","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T21:09:49","slug":"summer-reading-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/summer-reading-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Reading II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"16549272155_6789e52b69_z\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Continuing our relaxed pace for the last full month of summer, here is another brief quiz. Make your choices.<\/p>\n

1. Jill’s poetic captions exquisitely complement\/compliment<\/span> Jerry’s gorgeous photographs from their Canadian Rockies vacation.
\n2. I love the pieces I bought at the auction, but I am putting them in different rooms because they don’t seem complementary\/complimentary<\/span>.
\n3. Most of Cal’s interests are sedentary (e.g.\/i.e.<\/span>, reading, doing crossword puzzles, and playing chess and bridge).
\n4. The Little League games are too often marred by embarrassing behavior (e.g.\/i.e.<\/span>, parents berating the umpire).<\/p>\n

The answers<\/h2>\n

1 & 2. We usually want the “i” word, as in “She paid me a compli<\/span>ment” or “These tickets are compli<\/span>mentary.” But when items fit together well or enhance each other, we want the “e” word.\u00a0Therefore, the answers to 1 and 2 are “comple<\/span>ment” and “comple<\/span>mentary.”<\/p>\n

An easy way to remember the distinction is thinking of the word “comple<\/span>te.” When we want the word that signifies comple<\/span>teness, we want the “e” word.<\/p>\n

3 & 4. Both of these abbreviations come from Latin, but don’t worry. The two tricks at the bottom provide a really easy way to remember this distinction, too.<\/p>\n

We get “e.g.” from the Latin\u00a0exampli\u00a0<\/em>gratis (“<\/i>for the sake of example”) and “i.e.” from the Latin id est<\/em> (“that is”). So when we are providing an example, we can set that up with “e.g.,” and when we are clarifying, we can set that up with “i.e.” Therefore, we want “e.g.” in #3, where we are giving examples of Cal’s sedentary interests, and “i.e.” in #4, where we meant the parents’ yelling is<\/span> the bad behavior, not that it is just one example.<\/p>\n

And recognize that we don’t ever have to use these Latin abbreviations. We can just stick to English and write out “for example” or “for instance” instead of “e.g.” and “that is to say” or “in other words” instead of “i.e.”<\/p>\n

The two tricks<\/h2>\n

If you do want to use “e.g.” and “i.e.” once in a while, these coincidences may come in handy: Imagine you were pronouncing “e.g.” as if it were a word. It would sound like “egg,” right? And the beginning of the word “example” sounds like “egg.”<\/p>\n

As for “i.e.,” pretend it stands for “in essence.” It doesn’t, but when we use “i.e.” correctly, that’s precisely what we mean.<\/p>\n

In addition to presenting workshops on writing in the workplace, Norm Friedman is a writer, editor, and writing coach. His\u00a0100+ Instant Writing Tips<\/a>\u00a0is a brief \u201cnon-textbook\u201d to help individuals overcome common writing errors and write with more finesse and impact. Learn more at\u00a0http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/index.shtml<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continuing our relaxed pace for the last full month of summer, here is another brief quiz. Make your choices. 1. Jill’s poetic captions exquisitely complement\/compliment Jerry’s gorgeous photographs from their Canadian Rockies vacation. 2. I love the pieces I bought … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1444"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1460,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions\/1460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}