i.e. Flashcards
Explaining what you mean
Some poems are mnemonics, i.e. they are designed to help you remember something.
Some poems are mnemonics, that is to say, they are designed to help you remember something.
Mnemonic poems, that is poems designed to help you remember something, are an excellent way to learn lists.
A limerick’s rhyme scheme is A–A–B–B–A. In other words, the first, second, and fifth lines all rhyme with one another, while the third and fourth lines have their own rhyme.
In this exercise the reader is encouraged to work out the meaning, or rather the range of meanings, of the poem.
This is a poem about death, or, more precisely, dying.
He says his poems deal with ‘the big issues’, by which he means love, loss, grief and death.
Correcting yourself
When you say something that was not quite what you intended, you can correct yourself in various ways:
I’ll be there at five fifteen, I mean five fifty—ten to six.
It’ll be Tuesday—sorry, I meant to say Thursday.
Sorry, what I mean is, we need two handouts per person.
We can meet in the conference centre—or rather in front of the centre.
The painter—or should I say, the sculptor—was born in Padua.
It’s one t and double s—no, sorry, one s and double t.
It’s on the fifth floor—no, actually, it’s the fourth.
Can I get two lattes and an espresso—no, scratch that—three lattes?
(North American English, informal)
There are three items on tonight’s agenda. Correction, four items.
i.e. /ˌaɪ ˈiː/
1.used to explain exactly what the previous thing that you have mentioned means (from Latin ‘id est’)
the basic essentials of life, i.e. housing, food and water
