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i.e.

Sasha Ivanov

Senior Member
Russian
How do you read out "i.e."?
In my first English grammar book, written by Russians, I read that you should always read it out as "that is", and I've been doing that ever since.
But, I think, I've recently seen a couple of times "i.e." read out as "EYE - EE" by American readers.
Americans will say eye ee. If you want to be pefecter than perfect, pronounce it as "id est" (it is, which is what it stands for.)
Same for "e.g.", nobody in real life swaps it for "for example"?
I wouldn't. If the text says "e.g.", I will pronounce it "ee gee".
If I were writing a text which I wanted to be read as "for example", I would write "for example", not "e.g.".
But the question is not about how we would write these things, but how someone reading a text aloud would say i.e. or e.g.

I can certainly imagine myself substituting a spoken “for example” for a written “e.g.”.
Are you talking about reading something to an audience?
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