Stuart's Daily Word Spot: i.e. or e.g?

Image via Wikipedia

i.e. or e.g?

A bit of Latin:

i.e. or, id est, means ‘that is’. i.e. is another way of expressing ‘in other words’ and its purpose is to make something clearer by providing a more common definition.

‘The leading civil servant promised to ‘elucidate matters employing terminology comprehensively coherent to those deficient in the field of education and enlightenment on all prospective eventualities’. i.e. he would speak more clearly in future.

e.g. is an abbreviation of another Latin phrase; exempli gratia means ‘for example’. e.g. is used to present specific examples supporting an assertion.

‘The fact of the matter is that some women look better in a bikini than others; e.g. Kelly Brook, Elle Macpherson, Holly Weber and Anne Widdicombe.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Different from or different than

Different from or different than: In British English, and its cousins, you can’t follow ‘different’ with ‘than’. Although people use both ‘to’ and ‘from’, the preferred use is ‘from’. Fowler, ‘English Usage’ doesn’t even mention ‘different than’, probably because he wasn’t aware of it at the time: it is definitely US usage. And, here in Britain, it’s generally considered unacceptable. Things are logically different from one another, and using ‘than’ after ‘different’ is regarded as a grammatical blunder.

‘The bikini Elle's wearing is different from the one worn by Corinne, but I think that Elle’s is better than hers.’

Picture: the North Sea at Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

Writing Progressing

Up early again this morning and managed to complete the last of the new character profiles I needed to progress the writing. Completed 1,200 words before breakfast, which we consumed whilst watching the start of the London marathon. It's always an inspiration, with so many ordinary people doing extraordinary things, mostly for charity and even the celebrities turning out for good causes. Elle McPherson looks as good as ever on her exercise regime and even Will Young put in a creditable performance, amongst others, such as Matthew Pinsent. As a rule, I tend to dismiss celebrities, but in this event they do seem to do some real good.
Later, we took a lovely 4 mile walk with my wife in bright sunshine and warm weather. Had to rest on our return, of course - it's an essential for me. After lunch, I returned to the fantasy novel and continued with Ch21, which now runs to page 208 and has 2740 words, so not a bad day's work.
I've stuck a few more photos on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/stuart.k.allison and one of the pics I took this morning is reproduced here; a small copse surrounded by oil seed rape just off the road to Little Driffield.
For those of you who enjoy language, my Daily Word Spot is just that, a post each day with a new word defined. I'd welcome your comments on this and on any of the other stuff on this blog.