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Example:

If you forgot your toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorent, etc., you will not be allowed to attend.

Make sure you bring your fishing pole, tackle, bait, etc. as we will not make any stops.

If you are unsure, confused, bewildered, etc, do a somersault, then eat five slices of baloney.

Which example is correct? (Bonus points: why?)

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  • 1
    Or "&c." . (which my boss insists on)
    – Joe
    Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 1:12
  • 6
    @Joe, your boss has got a serious problem there.
    – dwoz
    Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 18:24

2 Answers 2

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Ha, ha! Nice. Use a lower case "e" and follow the "c" with a period. If the sentence continues, follow the period with a comma (no space). Similar circumstances for I.e., and e.g., . (Gosh, now where do I put that final period?)

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1

first off, your sentances need deoderent. Forsoothe, the toothepaste!

"etc." is an abbreviation for "et cetera" which is latin for "and the rest (of such things)" or "and so forth." As an abbreviation, it follows the same rules as "Mister"... "Mr." and "Doctor"... "Dr."

In your three example choices, only the first is correct with respect to the treatment of the "etc." but on some level, a sentence with three egregious errors can never be said to be "correct." :)

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  • 2
    Were your first two sentences a joke?
    – Nihilist_Frost
    Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 17:07
  • @Nihilist_Frost, the miss-spellings in this comment were taken directly from the original post. It looks like "hellian's" spelling corrections were only MOSTLY effective.
    – dwoz
    Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 18:26
  • I mean, a joke about the misspellings.
    – Nihilist_Frost
    Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 18:44
  • @Nihilist_Frost...indeed. The joke loses it's zing without the original typos.
    – dwoz
    Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 18:46
  • The fly in the ointment here is that omitting the period after abbreviations like "Ave", "Blvd", "Ct", "Dr" (for "doctor" or "drive"), "Ln", "Pl", "Rd", "St" (for "saint" or "street"), "Terr", and so on,  is becoming increasingly popular.
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Commented Oct 6, 2021 at 19:25

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