Ellipses

Ellipses

What is an Ellipse?

An ellipse is used for two things:

1)      a pause, often denoted by ...

2)      to stand for missing information

What does an ellipse do?

An ellipse is often used for suspense, eg.

The car edged towards the cliff, the driver desperately struggling to get out before it crashed in to the rough seas below. He tugged on the door handle but before it would open the car lunged forwards...

The ellipse here now denotes a pause and lets the reader imagine what happens. It creates suspense.

The second use of an ellipse is used to miss out information, for example shortening a quote eg.

Original Quote

“I think that the suitable course of action is to, upon careful consideration and discussion with my fellow colleagues and upon hearing testimonies based on your previous experience and service, recommend that you be demoted to Sergeant”

Reported Quote Using an Ellipse to Shorten

“I think that the suitable course of action is to... recommend that you be demoted to Sergeant”

Here the ellipse has substituted a large amount of information in order to make the quote shorter (a technique often used in journalism).

Everyday Speech

We often use Ellipses in everyday speech without realising it:

eg.

1)      ‘What’s up?’ is short for ‘What is the matter?’

2)      What’s the time?

Quarter to.                  (short for time is a quarter to five)

In this case the ellipses are not used for a dramatic effect but are used as part of spoken English.