Ellipsis

Ellipsis

 

An ellipsis [ … ] proves to be a handy device when you’re quoting material and you want to omit some words. The ellipsis consists of three evenly spaced dots (periods) with spaces between the ellipsis and surrounding letters or other marks. Let’s take the sentence,

“The ceremony honored twelve brilliant athletes from the Caribbean who were visiting the U.S.” and leave out “from the Caribbean who were”: The ceremony honored twelve brilliant athletes … visiting the U.S.

If the omission comes after the end of a sentence, the ellipsis will be placed after the period, making a total of four dots. … See how that works? Notice that there is no space between the period and the last character of the sentence.

The ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in the flow of a sentence and is especially useful in quoted speech:

Juan thought and thought … and then thought some more. “I’m wondering …” Juan said, bemused.

Ellipsis means leaving words out.

1)      Instead of repeating a noun phrase (the guard), we can use a pronoun or we can leave the pronoun out.

2)      Instead of repeating a verb phrase(take), we can use a substitution form or leave the substitution form out as in 2

1. The guard looked over and he smiled —    The guard looked over and smiled 2.She could take the money, but she won’t do it —  She could take the money, but she won’t.

In compound sentences, we usually leave out a repeated subject, a repeated subject and auxiliary or a repeated subject and verb. Examples:

—  She was shouting and_ _ throwing things—  Should we bring our bags or__ _leave them here? —  We sat and _ talked. —  He came, but _left early.