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6.23 Be careful with Latin words

The problem with many Latin expressions is that you may know what they mean,

but your reader may not. In the examples below i.e. (used for defining) and e.g. (for
giving examples) are not interchangeable.
S1. Great Britain, i.e. England, Scotland and Wales, is the ninth biggest island in the world
and the third most populated.
S2. Some EU members, e.g. Spain, Italy and France, are not in agreement with this policy.

In S1 i.e. is used to define Great Britain, which contains only those three countries.

In S2 e.g. means that Spain, Italy and France are just some examples of countries in
European Union that do not agree with the policy – but the implication is that there
are other countries involved as well.

If you are not short of space then it is generally better to use alternative versions.
Another way to say i.e. is that is to say . Other ways to say e.g. are: for example, such
as , and for instance .

Unless they are commonly used in your chosen journal, try to avoid other Latin
expressions such as a priori, a posteriori, ex ante, in itinere, ex-post, ceteris paribus
and others. Some readers, including native English speakers, may not know what
they mean. Thus S3 would be better rewritten as S4:

S3. This argument holds, a fortiori, in mergers, where the reduction of the number of fi rms in
the market is an explicit objective.
S4. This argument holds for similar but even more convincing reasons in mergers, where the

reduction of the number of firms in the market is an explicit objective.
If you use Latin expressions, check with your journal whether they should be in
italics or not.