Latin Abbreviations in English

I’m sure most of you are familiar with Latin abbreviations use in English. There are many of them but I’ll try to explain most frequently used ones.

e.g. (exempli gratia)

We use “e.g.” for giving specific examples.

Ex:  I feel like eating something sweet, e.g. ice cream.

i.e. (id est)

This abbreviation is used to explain something clearer.

Ex:  Schools usually don’t work in the summertime, i.e. in July and August.

P.S. (post scriptum)

We add „P.S“. at the end of a letter when we want to write something more.

Ex: P.S. Best wishes to your family.

vs (versus)

This abbreviation basically means „against“. It is used to oppose two different things in competition.

Ex:  The New York’s Knicks vs Chicago Bulls.

cf. (confer)

You can normally see this in a book when the author wants to mention another source that tells about something. It means “refer to…“ or “compare“

Ex: Summer is a great time for outdoor activities (cf. John Smith for various types of summer pastimes).

etc. (et cetera)

This Latin abbreviation is used at the end of a list to show that there are more things included in the list but you don’t want to mention them.

Ex: We often see snails, bugs, birds, etc. in our garden.

et al (et alia)

“et al” usually comes right after a name and it means “and others.” It is used when there are too many names to list, but you still want to give credit to everybody.

Ex:   The method is explained in the work of Johnson et al.

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