Is it grammatically incorrect to follow the abbreviations *ie* and *eg* with *etc*? [duplicate]
Is it grammatically incorrect to follow the abbreviations ie and eg with etc? My daughter's English teacher told her that this in an absolute no-no and is never permitted under any circumstances. He also said that this could warrant an F on an English submission. This must be an egregious grammatical error!
Consider these examples.
Mike brought the goodies (eg chocolate fudge, lemon meringue pie, etc) to the party.
When eating a squirrel taco, Bigfoot always added extra condiments (ie ranch dressing, ketchup, pepper, etc).
Good or bad?
Mentally translate from Latin abbreviations into English:
- "e.g." = "for example"
- "i.e." = "that is"
- "etc." = "and so forth"
If it makes sense post-translation, then it made sense pre-translation.
That said, I'd probably omit "etc." in the case of "e.g.". A list of examples is already implied to be non-exhaustive, so explicitly ending the list with "and so forth" seems like overkill.
As "ie" means "that is", it is not appropriate to use it in an inexhaustive list, as you have done in your second example sentence; this is better with "eg": "...condiments (eg, ranch dressing, ketchup, pepper)". An exhaustive list, of course, has no other possible items, so it is nonsensical to use both "ie" and "etc".
It is similarly unnecessary to follow an "eg" list with "etc", as "eg" already implies an incomplete list, and either "eg" or "etc" should be used.
This blog entry points out a nice distinction between the two:
Another thing to pay attention to is whether the list is definite or possible members of a set. Generally, you will find that etc. tends more to imply that the things listed are all definite members of a fixed set, whereas e.g. is more able to allow possible members of a set. Compare:
Choose some music you like (e.g., Pet Shop Boys, Metallica, Beethoven).
Choose some music you like (Pet Shop Boys, Metallica, Beethoven, etc.).
The second is more likely to imply that you like all three of the artists listed, whereas the first tends more to allow that they’re just examples of music you might like.
Personally, I don't consider it a great sin to use both "eg" and "etc" - just a redundancy.
Well, I believe your second example is a construct which shouldn't be used in the first place. "i.e." means "id est," which means "that is." It's really not accurate to use it to introduce a set of examples. "e.g.", for "exempla gratia," means literally, "for the sake of example" (thanks, user61979) So I'd say that you don't want to use 'i.e.' in the first place unless you're going to state exactly and completely what's being referred to. Use of "etc," then, is out of place in a "completely specified" list.