like, such as, for example, e.g.

January 30, 2010 | Posted by profanglais

We use these words when supporting what we have said with examples.

As a general rule, only use ‘e.g.’ when writing. It is the abbreviation of ‘exempli gratia’ from Latin.

‘Like’ means ‘similar to’ as in this sentence:

‘She loves chocolate and hates turnip, just like me‘
(Elle adore le chocolat et déteste le navet, tout comme moi)

So we can use ‘like‘ when giving examples of similar things.

‘In my free time I like reading science fiction books like Star Trek or Isaac Asimov’

‘such as’ can be used to cite specific examples:

‘Big cities such as New York and Johannesburg have a lot of problems with violent crime.’

‘for example’ can be used just like in French, ‘par exemple’ – separate the example with commas:

‘Some EC members, for example Britain and Denmark, are decidely Euro-sceptic.’

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