Skip to main content

Latin shorthands: cf., vs., etc.

Hey there English learners!

Today, we're going to understand some Latin shorthanded roots that prevail in English writing catgory. Thus, its field of study is stenography: the art or process of writing in shorthand. Here we go! 

  1. 1. E.g. 
The abbreviation “e.g." comes from the Latin phrase “exempli gratia", which translates literally as "for example," and it is used in English with that meaning to introduce one or more examples that illustrate something previously stated in order to make it more clear or understandable. 
Here is an example: 
1.1. There are many communist countries in the world, e.g., China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba. 

  1. 2. Etc. 
The Latin phrase et cetera has been used in English since the early Middle Ages and translates as "and others of the same kind" or "and so forth." (Et means "and"; cētera means "the other, other part, that which remains.") Earliest print evidence of its common abbreviation,etc., is from the 15th century, and it is used after a partial list of things to indicate that many others of the same kind can be inferred, e.g., Jardim Zoológico had lions, bears, mambas, monkeys, etc. 

  1. 3. I.e. 
The abbreviation i.e. comes from the Latin phrase id est, which means "that is," and it is used in English with that meaning (or loosely "that is to say" or "what that means is") to introduce something that explains or clarifies a preceding statement more fully or exactly or that restates it in more simple or different terms. In other words, it means "in other words."  
3.1. The ointment only needs to be applied for a short period of time—i.e., three to five days.  
3.2. My grandfather is unfriendly, I.e., he has no friends.  

  1. 4. N.B. 
The abbreviation N.B. (or NB) comes from the Latin phrase nota bene, meaning "mark (note) well," and it is used to tell the reader that something is important. 
4.1. I am to send the payroll for all MATALANE’s soldiers (N.B. including the ones that are currently retired). 

  1. 5. V./VS Versus is usually abbreviated v. in legal writing, and the v may be roman or italic ("Brown v. Board of Education"). Otherwise, vs. is used ("good vs. evil")/ (Barcelona vs. Real Madrid). 

  1. 6. P./PP. 
p. is used to denote 1 page, pp. to denote a range of pages. This form of citation is used when you are using brief/in text citations. 
6.1. You can find the chapters on p. 45. 
6.2. Dear PBC’s students, you will find the difference between wake and awake (pp. 132-135).

7. Cf. 
  1. The abbreviation cf. (short for the Latin: confer/conferatur, both meaning" compare") is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. 
       7.1. The properties of the electric field are given below (cf. with the magnetic field). 



Thanks for your interest. The champions are the ones you have read up downwards the page. 


Warmest regards,
PBC- Department of Scientific English Language
CEO (Chief Executive Officer):
Pedro Benny C.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to use "talk to" and "talk with"?

Many English learners and students of mine, especially in Maputo province where I currently live, confuse talk to for talk with (which is mostly because of the inability to distinguish the differences between the two. Given that this is commonly mistaken by some English-as-a-Second-language speakers, it does not generally mean that it must be related to  hypercorrection  linguistics. This kind of slight unconscious mistake is just a simple grammar lesson that, by far, seems unimportant, but requires our concentration and should also be hammer homed. The differences between the two phrasal verbs are slightly lilliputians, therefore the mistake remains sub-concious. Here is what I think about them: TO TALK TO  To talk to can mean one-sided conversation, i.e, it means that the conversation is likely going to be held mostly by one part/side of the conversationalists during a certain reprimand. I would like to talk to the last student about something I have n...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are transitive verbs?

To firstly understand what transitive verbs are, we have to understand what a DIRECT OBJECT is, because throughout the explanation process, we shall include direct objects as a way of breaking down ( clearing up ) the understanding of transitive verbs. So, what is a direct object in grammar? Direct Object or simply “ D.O ” is either a noun ( Jeff, Rosanna, Carlos, bag, squirrel… ), pronoun ( me, her, him... ) or a  noun phrase ( the cars, the yellow mango, that umbrella my grandfather purchased in December... ) that identifies what or who receives an action of a transitive verb. Now that we all already understand what an O.D is, it’s time to go back to the definition of what a transitive verb might be. Transitive verbs are verbs; of course; that accept direct objects. It’s quite easy to identify a transitive verb in English as it might be easier in other languages. Furthermore, if you want to find out whether a verb is transitive or not, you can start off by using t...
Post a Comment
Read more