E.g. and I.e.: Choosing the Right Abbreviation

Knowing what the abbreviations e.g. and i.e. stand for can help you understand how and when to use them appropriately in your writing. The abbreviation e.g. is from the Latin exempli gratia and means “for example,” and i.e. is from the Latin id est and means “that is.” To figure out which abbreviation is correct in your sentence, ask yourself this question: are you providing an example (or examples) or are you clarifying what was just said? If you are only providing examples, use e.g., but if you’re clarifying or expanding on what you said, use i.e. Remember to use a comma after either abbreviation in your sentence.

Here’s a sentence that uses e.g. correctly:

Holly planned on hiking that morning, and she decided to bring a few items (e.g., sunscreen and a bottle of water) in her new backpack.

In that sentence, sunscreen and a bottle of water are listed as examples of the types of things Holly is bringing for the hike. The reader can infer that those aren’t the only two items she decided to take with her.

If you wanted to note exactly which items Holly decided to bring, you would need to use i.e., signaling an expansion of the phrase “a few items” to a list of the exact items:

Holly planned on hiking that morning, and she decided to bring a few items (i.e., sunscreen, a bottle of water, her phone, and a map of the trail) in her new backpack.

A tip: If you’re unsure which abbreviation to use, swap “that is” or “for example” into your sentence to test out which phrase accurately conveys your meaning.

Note that MLA style generally recommends using e.g. and i.e. only within parentheses, as shown in the two examples in the this post. Outside parentheses, use the spelled-out English phrases for example and that is. Like the abbreviations, the spelled-out forms are always followed by a comma.