Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my channel Sparkle English where I teach you how to improve
your level of English. This is a new video in my English Writing Essentials series.
Today, I am going to teach you all about ellipses. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to
my channel for more videos like this one teaching you how to improve your writing skills and use
punctuation marks. So what is an ellipsis? An ellipsis is a set of three periods. So this here
is an ellipsis. Ellipses is the plural form of ellipsis. So here we have ellipses. There
are three different ellipses. Sometimes you hear people say, "dot, dot dot," and they mean
an ellipsis. One is called an ellipsis point. Ellipses are also known as suspension points.
So when do we use an ellipsis? There are multiple uses for ellipses.
We use ellipses to indicate words have been omitted or removed from a phrase or
paragraph. We can also use ellipses to indicate a pause in speech or trailing off into silence.
So first of all, let's talk about using ellipses to replace omitted words. This is very common
if you have to write an essay in school or university. Or if you are writing an article.
Ellipses are often used to reduce the length of a quoted sentence, speech, or paragraph.
The portion replaced by an ellipsis must not change the meaning of the quote.
So for example, here is a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. "Five score years ago, a great American
in whose symbolic Chateau we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation." Now, let's say
you want to quote this, but you don't want to quote the entire paragraph. We can use an ellipsis
to replace a portion of the quote that we don't want to include. So a shortened quote could be:
"Five score years ago ... a great American signed the Emancipation Proclamation." And this ellipsis
right here replaces "in whose symbolic shadow we stand today." Removing this does not change the
meaning of the quote. So we can use an ellipsis to reduce the length of a quote and make it shorter.
Here is another example Winston Churchill, in one of his famous speeches said this quote.
We could use ellipses to shorten this: "We shall go on to the end ... we shall defend
our Island ... we shall never surrender." So in this one, we use two different ellipses to
replace this ... is the first one. And this ellipsis replaces the second part.
Now this is very important, the portion replaced by an ellipsis must not change the meaning of
the quote. For example, here's a quote by Marilyn Monroe. "I don't forgive people because I'm weak.
I forgive them because I am strong enough to know people make mistakes." If I shorten this and said,
"I don't forgive people ... because I ... know people make mistakes." This implies that Marilyn
Monroe doesn't forgive people. And that is not what she said. So this would be incorrect. It is
not correct to use ellipses in this way. However, if we said "I ... forgive people because ... I am
strong enough to know people make mistakes." This is correct because it does not change the
meaning of the quote. So you cannot use ellipses to manipulate the real meaning of the quote.
We also use ellipses to indicate hesitation, pauses, or trailing off.
Now, this is very common in informal writing or writing in novels, poetry,
when you're text messaging your friends or writing emails. For example, we use an ellipsis
for hesitation or pauses. "Umm ... I'm not sure what he said." "Hmm ... shall we go to the beach?"
"I think ... we should break up." So here we have hesitations. And here is a pause. I think, pause,
we should break up. If we don't use an ellipsis here, the sentence is read like "I think we
should break up." But the ellipsis indicates a pause. We can also use an ellipsis for trailing
off. "I love you, but ... " and that means our sentence is trailing off. We're not finishing
the sentence. "I can't do this anymore, I just ... " We're not finishing the sentence.
It is incomplete, or we have more to say and we just don't say it. We can use an ellipsis.
You will see many uses of ellipses in novels. Now if the sentence is
considered grammatically complete, we use a period and the ellipsis at the end.
If the sentence is not grammatically complete, use only the ellipsis. So I'm going to show you
some examples from novels I found in my house of how these authors use the ellipsis. So these two
quotes are taken from the Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. "And she mumbled, I just play sort of
around the college. Just...play...really." Here, you can see that this author
has decided not to use spaces on either side of the ellipsis. And this is not very common.
I'm going to talk about ellipses and spaces next, but the most important thing is to be consistent.
And this other quote from the novel, The Golden Compass. "Take it off at once, and come help check
these glasses...." And here you can see that this is the end of a sentence, the sentence is trailing
off, but it is a complete sentence. So the author has used an ellipsis plus a period at the end
because the sentence is complete. If this sentence ended right here with these.
"And come help check these..." that wouldn't be a complete sentence. So it would just have an
ellipsis at the end. Here's some other examples from the novel Rachel's holiday by Marian Keyes.
"Long hair? Huge pair of . . . er . . . eyes?" Here you can see in this book,
this author decided to have a space between every ellipsis point and before and after the ellipsis,
whereas Philip Pullman has decided not to use any spaces. "What the . . . ? I thought in surprise."
"She just tried to play God with the lives of the people around her . . . " Again,
you can see the difference between Philip Pullman's style and Marian Keyes'
style. Because with him, he decided to use a period after the ellipsis because this was a
grammatically complete sentence. Now Marian Keyes has decided just to use the ellipsis. Even though
this is a complete sentence, she has not added a period after the ellipsis. So with ellipses, it's
very important to stick to one style guide in all of your writing. That is the most important thing.
So as you saw in the last example, different style guides have different rules on how to use
spaces with ellipses. The most important thing is to be consistent.
I'm going to compare two different style guides and show you how the spacing is different. First,
I'm going to show you an example in formal writing when you are omitting words from quotes. This is a
quote by Michelle Obama. "A President's words have the power to move markets, they can start wars
or broker peace." Now using the Chicago Manual of Style, we could shorten this quote and say,
"A president's words . . . can start war or broker peace." And with the Chicago Manual of Style,
we have a space before the ellipsis and a space between each ellipsis point. So space
point, space, point, space, point, space. And in the AP Stylebook, "A president's words ... can
start wars or broker peace." We have a space and then the ellipsis with no space between
each ellipsis point and then a space. Now let's look at an example with hesitation and a pause.
"I think . . . we should move to a different country." So here again, with the Chicago Manual
of Style, we have a space, ellipsis point, space, ellipsis point, space, ellipsis point,
space. And with the AP Stylebook, "I think ... we should move to a different country."
We have a space, then the ellipsis with no space, as if it's one word all together
and then space. So again, the most important thing is to be consistent with your style when you are
using ellipses. If you have to do an essay or something where you will be getting a grade,
ask your teacher or your professor which style guide you have to follow.
But in general, we use ellipses to omit words from quotes and in informal writing for hesitation
or pauses or trailing off in our writing. Okay, thank you guys very much for watching this lesson.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comment section. Make sure to check out my
full series on English writing essentials where I talk about all the other punctuation marks.
You can click on the link in the description below to watch my other videos on punctuation marks.
Thank you guys for watching, and I will see you in my next lesson!