Unit 11.1
Ellipsis
Introduction
An ellipsis is a series of three dots that represents an omission of one or some elements of the original text.
usually replaces an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without changing the original meaning.
Form
The ellipsis mark is: …
Example
- incomplete sentence
- It is not cold … it is freezing cold.
- She didn’t pat him … she hit him.
- I don’t know … maybe we should go somewhere else.
- omission between two complete sentences
- The red car raced the blue car. … And if the red car wins I will win one million dollars.
- We bought apples. … I like them too.
- I like that but I think they don’t. … Maybe we should change that.
Use
We use an ellipsis to replace elements from the original text. Most of the times is an intentional omission of a word, sentence or a whole selection of a text. We place the ellipsis mark:
- at the end of an incomplete sentence. Therfore, the final full stop will be omitted.
- between two complete sentences. In this case, the full stop will be placed after each sentence.
Related
At A1 level you can take a look at these: The Slash, Question mark, Exclamation mark, Comma, Colon, Semicolon and Symbols.
At A2 level you can take a look at these: Dot, Question Mark, Exclamation mark, Comma, Colon and Semicolon
At B1 level you can take a look at these: Dot, Question marks, Exclamation marks, Comma, Colon and Semicolon.
At B2 level you can take a look at these: Dot, Question mark, Exclamation mark, Comma, Colon, Semicolon and Ellipsis.