'eg' means 'for example', you meant 'ie'

[GarlicMaybeNot]

On the one hand, it's nice that people are using literary abbreviations. On the other, I wish they'd use the right one!

While we're at it, 'persay' isn't a thing. It's 'per se'.

Qua teacher, I would use "considered as" or "in its/his/her role as" for "qua."

I rather like the old style of writing "etc" as "&c"! Of course, the symbol "&" is a ligature for "et."

What has that got to do with absolutely anything on this thread?

In a place I used to work, the administrator, who you had to pass all letters through before they were sent out, made 'a lot' into one word.

She had been told, but it seemed to be a complete blind spot for her. There are many/much/several synonyms that we used instead.

Where I live we use qua a lot.
Wiktionary has the second definition as "the cawing sound of a crow". Perhaps that's why we don't use it! It's a visual rather than an aural word.

Thank you. That's helpful.

@WYorkshireRose

The OP said "While we're at it, 'persay' isn't a thing. It's 'per se'"

For a dyslexic whose condition has led them to write from verbal learning, not by reading because reading is difficult or even inaccessible, it wouldn't be unusual for persay to be the way they communicate per se in writing.

@renomeno

Thank you. My son got these too in year 10. They aren't perfect but helped the slow down the speed of letter movement somewhat. The overlays didn't work at all.

"Get a life" is in my Chambers dictionary.

I've just checked my ancient version of Chambers. It doesn't have "get a life" but it does have "get away with you!"

Some people, like me, don’t have to think about it- other people really can’t “see” when something like that isn’t right despite being taught exactly the same thing. It’s interesting to me, some knowledge/understanding isn’t tangible. Applies to lots of things but in use of language particularly obvious. Has fuck all to do with a dictionary.

Bit like how some people are just massive cunts and others aren’t. Perhaps you can explain that too?

some knowledge/understanding isn’t tangible
I don't understand what this means. Can you elaborate, please?

Must remember to use inter alia, that's very useful.

I do use et al., to offer another one to the list.

And I despair at ect. because etcetera is fairly common and the spell checked should fix it, if nothing else.

Remember, you must never use eg and etc in the same phrase.

So: "they said they had ordered some drinks, eg wine, beer, and gin etc" is just wrong.

It's either "they ordered some drinks, eg wine, beer, gin" OR
"They ordered some drinks: wine, beer, gin etc" and note the shift in punctuation in the last example if you want to be really pedantic (and I do).

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that excellent abbreviation.
When you think about why some people get all these words and phrases wrong the answer must be that they just dont read much and by that I mean proofread books, newspapers, articles etc, rather than flicking through social media online. A lifetime of reading would mean that you naturally would have come across the correct usage.

Agreed, @GetWhatYouWant, we pick a lot up through reading - sometimes wrongly, but further reading will put that right as we encounter phrases in varied contexts.

It works the other way round, too! I'd never got their/there/they're or your/you're wrong until a few years ago; I've even caught myself abusing apostrophes 😬 My brain-to-finger connection has learned Bad Things from social media. The commonest errors have even found their way into broadsheet newspapers and professionally-published novels. We are sunk!

Intellectually, I don't care all that much: language mutates. But it interrupts flow and, sometimes, requires an extra bit of effort to work out what the writer meant. I would've thought natural evolution in language should make things clearer, not more fuzzy. In any case, there's no more evolution to be had with Latin!

@MassageForLife, I like your workplace solution alot 😉

Do you mean hyperlexia? I have it and I definitely “feel” a language. I haven’t studied English formally but I am quite fluent and “feel” what is right.

Thank you. I know that i.e. is 'id est' and it means 'that is', and I know that e.g. means 'for example' but I never learned 'exempli gratia' so far.

@GetWhatYouWant , They must presumably never use the phrase in actual conversation or they would realise they were using the wrong abbreviation.
They say 'ec setra'. I see 'per say' quite frequently.