Another punctuation/grammatically-related issue…
This is the strangest thing to rant about, but it drives me nuts (seriously) every time I see it misused:
The abbreviation i.e. DOES NOT MEAN IN EXAMPLE!!
Thank you, please continue to go about your daily lives now.
What does it mean? I can’t remember how I’ve seen it or how it’s normally used. Sentence please. 
Are you saying that’s not what it stands for, or that’s not what it means?
As in it stands for something else, but we’re using it properly, or it stands for something else and we’re are using it incorrectly.
i.e. is the latin id est – “that is.” What follows “i.e.” should be an explanation or clarification of the preceeding, not an example of it. Use it in places that you would otherwise use phrases like “in other words.”
I.e. stands for “id est” which translates to “that is”.
E.g. stands for “exemplia gratia” which translates to “for example”.
You use the first when you’re rephrasing or explaining the point of the previous clause, i.e., you state the same thing again differently.
You use the second when you’re giving examples, e.g., this sentence.
Drives me nuts too.
Neither. It stands for id est or “that is.” It’s not supposed to be used in conjunction with an example but as a specific clarification or restatement of something in the preceding phrase (The beast that was chasing me was an ursus maritimus, i.e., a polar bear").
The convention meaning “for example” is “e.g.” from the Latin exempli gratia (“I am afraid of many animals, e.g., polar bears”).
ETA, I see redtail got here first.
Ok, that’s how I’ve always used it. I just never thought about what it stood for exactly.
You’d think so wouldn’t you. However, I can’t tell you the number of times people have insisted that rather than e.g., I meant ex. as an abbreviation of example. No, when I mean e.g., I mean e.g., dammit.
I thought i.e. stood for internet explorer… 
While we’re at it, “as such” doesn’t mean “therefore.” “As such” means what it says: “because he/she/it (etc) is as specified.”
You can’t say “I have completed my translation certificate and as such can now join the professional order.” As such? As what? I haven’t said I am something, I’ve said I’ve done something. It should be, “I have completed my translation certificate and therefore can now join the professional order.” A correct use of “as such” would be, “I am a certified translator and as such can charge higher fees,” meaning, “…and, as a certified translator, can charge…”
I see this error all over and it drives me batty. The phrase means exactly what it says! Think for a minute, and don’t just use the phrase because it makes you sound edjumacated.
One is used to further explain a term, (i.e., to expand on it).
The other is to give an example (e.g., the sentence above).
So long as we’re collecting grammatical abominations I’ll just mention ‘of’. As in ‘I should of gone to Aunt Euphemia’s house today’. It’s ‘HAVE’ people! I should HAVE gone…
grrrr, I blame the internets, kids these days, in my day we never, education ain’t what it was, PC gone mad…
I’ve only ever heard this spoken, and I think it’s just a dialect thing. They are saying “should’ve” which is supposed to be a contraction of should and have. It’s sort of wrong (I don’t think should’ve is actually a word) but it’s not too bad.
But, I’m from Mississippi, so maybe my standards are low.
I don’t have a problem with should’ve. It’s people who literally* write “should of” who drive me nuts. A quick Google search returns 1.6 million usages of “should’ve” and 1.2 million usages of “should of”. Grrr
I don’t mind the contraction. ‘Should’ve’ is perfectly fine when speaking.
Just don’t type ‘Should of’ for crying out loud! What is it that they think they are saying? Grrrr.
I have three. They’re aggervatingly common, seem to be generally accepted by the citizenry, and so unmistakably wrong that they make me want to grab the speaker by the scruff of the neck and scream “DON’T* SAY *THAT!” whenever I hear them used. To wit:
“very unique”. Uniqueness is defined by its singularity. If someone or something is unique, that item or individual is one of a kind. Nothing can be very one of a kind. So, nothing can be “very unique”. You would not* believe*how many supposedly literate people cannot seem to grasp that.
Saying “I could care less” to mean “I couldn’t care less”. There’s only one thing that keeps the phrase as said from meaning its own exact opposite --the former phrase isn’t the opposite of the latter because if you look closely at it, the phrase “I could care less” doesn’t really make any sense. And if it did, it would be the opposite of what was meant!
And then…there’s…the…word…“irregardless”. Except there’s no such WORD as “irregardless”. Someonesaid it by accident on some ill-fated and unrecorded day, when s/he meant “regardless”. Others started repeating it under the vastly mistaken notion that “irregardless” was the smart way to say “regardless.” Well, it WASN’T. And it AIN’T. * And there is no such goddamn word as irregardless and when people use it like it WAS a word they sound STOOOOOPID and drive us literate people FREAKIN’ BATSHIT!
*
What did the mother tongue ever do to these people, anyway? .
I never really got this straight until I saw a Rhymes with Orange strip that was not particularly funny but *was *very useful. It said (paraphrasing here):
"i.e: in ether words
“e.g: for egsample”
I haven’t gotten them mixed up since.
Would it be correct to “E.g.” here?
You’re bitching about people WRITING it?
How about people SAYING it?
For example: “American cars, IE Fords, just aren’t what they used to be.” I work with people who say this and do the double-quote thing with their fingers (also an incorrect use of punctuation in most cases) in mid sentence.