| Hi everybody, my name is Alisha. |
| In this lesson, we're going to look at five very common Latin abbreviations. |
| These abbreviations are very common in written English today. So let's break down what they mean and how you can use them in your written communication as well. |
| Okay, the first one I want to look at is: i.e. |
| i.e. |
| This is I, period, E, period in text. |
| So I have in black color today the Latin meaning of these expressions. And we also have today's English meaning in blue here. |
| So in Latin, this refers to "id est." You don't have to worry about what this means, but this is where the "i" and the "i" come from here. So "i, id, i, est." |
| In English, in today's English, this means "in other words" or "another way to say this is" so and so. So we use i.e to express an alternative way of understanding or explaining something. So when we want to explain a concept or explain a person or whatever in a different way using different words, we can use i.e. to do that. So what does this look like? Let's take a look at two examples of this in text. First, we got a a big budget for our summer party from the company, i.e. the CEO. So this part right here, i.e. the CEO. If we replace i.e. with, in other words, we get, we got a big budget for our summer party from the company, in other words, the CEO. So you'll notice this i.e. the CEO comes after the company, right? So this expression is telling us, because it follows the word "the company" that another way to understand the company in this case is the CEO. So what is this sentence really saying? This sentence is saying, "Yes, we received a big budget or a lot of money for our company party." Right? It came from the company. What we really want to say is the CEO of our company gave us the budget for the party. So we can do this with i.e. |
| So we say it in one way here, and we say it in another way with i.e. |
| So this is kind of a common example of how we can use i.e. to make something a little more specific or to make the definition a little more narrow or just to express things in a slightly different way. So let's take a look at another example of this here. He received a package from a secret admirer, i.e. His wife. |
| So again, we have this i.e. after this noun phrase, a secret admirer. So a secret admirer is usually like a mysterious person, someone special that's trying to be secret. But we can also use this just to be kind of cute, right? So if you are married, you might call yourself someone's secret admirer, even though it's not a secret anymore. So in this case, the sentence is made to sound a little mysterious. He received a package from a secret admirer, like a secret love kind of thing. But we make this clear with i.e. In other words, his wife. |
| So we follow this again, I'm sorry, we follow a secret admirer with the alternative way of explaining or understanding the concept. So these are just a couple of different ways that we use this i.e. But if you're ever like, "Ah, this one's really hard for me to understand," try to remember this I in i.e. also has this in other words meaning by which I mean in other words also starts with I. |
| Yeah, so i.e., in other words, so they both start with I this can be one way that you can remember how this how this one is used and when to express your ideas in a different way okay so let's compare this now to e.g. These two are very, very commonly confused because as you can see, they're just letters with a period after them, right? Even native speakers confuse them. So let's break down the differences here. |
| So e.g. |
| What does e.g. mean? |
| So the Latin here is exempli gratia, which means in English, "for example," for example, very easy to understand, right? |
| We use this in the same way that we use for example, but we tend to use this in slightly more formal situations like maybe in a business situation or maybe in like a volunteer or city planning situation and so on. So we use e.g. in the same manner as for example and just like when we use for example, we put a comma after it. So we're going to list the example items and we use for example comma before that. So let's take a look at some examples of this e.g. |
| Okay? First, the volunteer group proposed new facilities to improve community happiness, e.g., parks, gardens, and bicycle paths. |
| Okay, so our e.g. is here. |
| Remember, e-dot, g-dot. And because this means "for example," we have a comma after it. So you could replace e-dot, g-dot with, for example, and the sentence meaning would stay the same. For example, parks, gardens, and bicycle paths. So we use this in exactly the same way as we use, for example, also note, this list does not mean everything in the proposal, right? These are just some example items included in the proposal. |
| Okay, let's take a look at the second example of e.g. |
| Companies should work to reduce their environmental impact, by reducing pollution using natural materials and relying on renewable energy sources. |
| Okay, so a long example sentence. This one sounds like a business or a corporate situation, right? So it sounds very formal. Here we have again, e.g.comma to introduce the examples. In this case, the examples are about ways to reduce environmental impact. So we have three here. Reducing pollution using natural materials and relying on renewable energy sources. So these are three examples of ways to reduce environmental impact. |
| This use of e.g. sounds very appropriate because this is a more formal or a corporate situation. So you can remember e.g. is for examples. A good way that you can kind of try to remember that e.g. is the example one is that E, which starts this part, is the same E as an example. For example. Yeah? |
| So i.e. is in other words. So kind of try to remember that first letter as the hint. I, sorry, i.e. in other words and EG for example. Okay? |
| So with these two out of the way, let's continue on to the next one, which is etc etc. So this one is: etc. |
| But in speech we always say etc. etc. So this is the Latin, et cetera. This means "and so on," which means there are also other things too. So we use this. We can use this short form, "etc." period, or the long form, etc. You can use both of them in writing. Either is okay, but the short form is more common. It's just quicker, it's smaller, it's easier to right. Yeah? However, as I said, in speech, we always say etc etc. You might also hear people say etc as well. Usually we say etc to make it a little bit faster. We don't say it's or anything like that in speech. We don't say that we always say etc. So let's take a look at some examples of how we use this. |
| Okay, first, we're planning to redesign our house. We're going to change the layout, paint the house a new color, buy some new lights, etc. |
| So here, we see "etc" is at the end of the sentence. It's the very last thing in the sentence. This is a very common position of "etc." Usually you find it at the end of a list. Here we have three items in the list about redesigning the house. So change the layout, paint the house a new color, buy some new lights, etc. Which means and there are also other things or and so on. |
| So they're just listing a few examples of things they're going to do to change their house and there are other things as well. |
| That's what etc. tells us. Let's look at one more example. |
| Event planning is a lot of work. You have to reserve a location, invite guests, organize food, etc. |
| So again, we have this ending position, right? We have this etc. at the end of the sentence, which shows us there are other things too. In this case, we're talking about event planning. You have to do this and this and this etc. and other things as well. So keep in mind that if you see this, it's probably going to be at the end of a sentence or at the end of a list that shows that there are other things to do as well. So it's like saying "and so on." Again, this tends to sound a little more polite, but it's not uncommon to see this in more casual situations too. |
| Okay, great. Let's move on to the last two. The last two are very interesting. |
| So the next one here I have in brackets because we often see it in brackets. This is (sic). |
| (sic). |
| So what is this? So (sic), There are are kind of two ways I want to explain this. The first usually is the one that we see most common is just this word, S-I-C in brackets. But this is part of a longer Latin expression, so sic er et scriptum. What does this mean? So the (sic) part, S-I-C, is just thus or in this way in Latin. But this full expression, this full Latin phrase means it was written this way or it had been written in this way. So this expression and the short version, "(sic)," is used today to mark an error in original text when quoting the original information. And you might think, "Why would you put an error in text?" It's because there are some situations where, for example, someone wrote something and you need to refer to that text. And the original text, there's an error someone made a spelling mistake, someone made a factual mistake, and that's actually important in the text. You need to refer to that and you need to show, "I recognize this is a mistake." |
| So it's like saying, "This is a mistake. I didn't put it there." So let's take a look at some examples of this so you can see how it's used. |
| Okay, first one. "In a text to a friend, the thief wrote, 'I'm gonna take as much jewelry as I can.'" Okay, so I'm I'm gonna take as much jewelry as I can. |
| Okay, so what's happening here? One, this is a sentence talking about a text from a thief. |
| Okay, so this is maybe a police or criminal situation, right? So a thief sent a text to a friend about something the thief was going to steal, right? And in the text was this, "I'm gonna take as much jewelry as I can." Here we have this (sic) after the word "jewelry." So why is this here? This is here because jewelry in this sentence is misspelled. There's a spelling error. This is not the correct spelling of jewelry, okay? But this is the way the thief wrote the text. The thief wrote a spelling error. So you might see a sentence like this in let's say a news report about this situation. When you want details about the suspect or about the crime, you might include this information And the writer of the report puts (sic) here to show, I didn't, I, the writer of the report, did not write the spelling error. This spelling error is from the thief's text. So we use (sic) to mark these kinds of problems, to show the writer of the piece did not make the error. This is an error in the original text. |
| Okay, let's look at one more example of this. Her message said, you're (sic) the best, you're the best. |
| Okay, so this is another example of an ever in someone else's message. So here, her message, so a message from someone else, maybe email message, text message, whatever. Her message said, "You're, why oh you are?" After that we have this (sic); so again, (sic) always refers to a problem with the information just before it. |
| In this case, "Your the best." Why is this marked as wrong? It's because this is the incorrect form of "you're." Y-O-U-R means the possessive form, right? This is your bag, this is your room, whatever. |
| Y-O-U apostrophe R-E is the correct form of your. But again, the person writing this wants to show, this is not my mistake, the mistake was in her message. So we use (sic) to mark those mistakes made by other people. So again, this means it was written in this way, okay? So some people might say, this is kind of rude, Like you're pointing out someone else's error, and that could be true. But in some situations, like in this situation, maybe, like a crime-related situation, or maybe in a fact-checking situation, it could be important to note when the original text has an error, and it might be important to share that. So there are some situations where (sic) can be very, very valuable. But if you see this, especially in news articles, this is what it means. OK, great. |
| Let's move on to the very last one for today. |
| et al. |
| et al with a period after al. |
| So this et al, we usually see in more formal types of writing. And according to some sources, there are three possible ways that we could understand the original Latin with et al. So this could be the masculine or the feminine or the neuter form. It could be et al. et al. et al. |
| But generally they all refer to the same thing in today's English, which means and others and others. So we use this in professional and academic texts to refer to works created by multiple authors. So we list the first author's name and follow it with et al. So you might think, what does that mean? |
| Okay, so this says to refer to works created by multiple authors. So generally in university situations, for example, This means when someone writes a paper, or someone writes a book or something like that, together with other people. |
| So usually this is maybe two, three, four, maybe more, five, six people. It means that something written by many different people is important and we want to talk about that work. We want to talk about that paper or talk about that book. We want to refer to it. But we don't want to write every single author's name when we refer to that. It can get very, very long. So this is the system that we use. usually in university level writing and other professional and academic writing to refer to other works written by other people but to do it in a very short way. So this might be very hard to explain or hard to imagine. So let's take a look at some example sentences that use this. |
| First, according to Smith et al., students with strong support networks are most likely to succeed. |
| Okay, so this fact is not true. I've made up the fact for this example sentence. |
| The important part here is "according to Smith et al." |
| So et al here after Smith. So this part means according to Smith et al. Smith is one of the authors here. Et al means "and others." |
| So this shows the reader some paper or some book or some document written by Smith. Smith is the last name of one of the writers. Smith and others, they wrote this document. According to this document, we learned this. So we don't want to write five, six, seven names in the sentence because it makes it really hard to follow the sentence. If we had like five or six names here, it would be really hard to think about the key information that we want to share with the reader, right? So we choose one name, usually the first name alphabetically, and then we put et al to show and others with this. |
| Okay, let's look at one more example of this. So here's one: |
| Webster et al. 2020, state that the new system is better than the old system. |
| Okay, so again, the fact here is not important. We want to look at this use of et al. |
| So in this case, the author name, the first author name is Webster, and then et al means others and others. So Webster and some other people, essentially. And then this part, this year, this shows the year the work was created, the year the paper was written, the year the book was published and so on. This is another very common way that we express a time period for the work. So again, this means Webster and some other people wrote this work in 2020. Here is what it said. So this system, this et al. system, is typically used plus a reference section later in the paper. So that means if you are reading a paper or some article or some document And you see this at all. Usually that means you can go to the end of the book or the end of the paper and you can find the title of the book or the title of the document, the title of the paper. You can go and read it as well to get more information about this sentence or this sentence here. |
| So typically we see this used in situations where we have a long list of references. |
| Again, this is typically not used in everyday communication, But if you use English in your work, like professional academic situation, or in research situations, you will definitely run into this. You will definitely see this. So it's good to keep in mind. So this et al means and others. |
| Okay, great. So those are five very, very common Latin abbreviations that we use in English text. So I hope that this was helpful for you. And I hope that this helps you understand these kinds of things when you see them in text from now on. Of course, if you have any questions or comments, or if you want to practice making some example sentences with this information, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye! |
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