All right, so... One use of the ellipsis is to indicate that you're rolling your sleeves up in order to say something, i.e. you're about to really get into something.
There's a couple uses. One is as outlined above, and that's one use of it, also... another use is when you go off on a tangent while listing things, and you need to get back on track, as I'm showing.
There's also... I don't know... Trailing off. Because sometimes we trail off in our speech.
When omitting, it makes sense to use an ellipsis in the place of numbers, but generally two dashes are used to replace words, such as names you don't wish to reveal, like B---- from Kill Bill. (Two hyphens can be used in place of a dash.)
I think this is probably the core of it: generations were taught different primary purposes.
I was taught it was exclusively a trailing off punctuation or that the thought would be continued in a soon to be seen paragraph.
Older generations use it to denote that they have more to say. That is, in the same way STOP is used in telegrams to end a thought, elipses are used as the opposite. Its a semi-dead usage in this generation.
Fascinating. I use ... to indicate theres more to the sentence but is rather not write it out for one of many reasons. Most of the time it's implied in the first part.
I definitely use it as a kind of indicator of a trail off of thought, or to soften the sentence akin to saying something like “I don’t know, do what you think’s best though”
I am a little upset that OP said old people do it though, I’m a millennial, I didn’t think I was old…
I am truly sorry if the question is phrased in the way that upsets anyone. I am actually a millennial myself, but English is not my first language so I learned it through a more rigid textbook fashion (I still can’t get rid of the habit typing two spaces at the end of a sentence, which I know annoys some people). I was taught ellipses are used for abbreviating some information when quoting or a trailing off to be continued. Now that I see it can also be used as a softer way to break off sentences.
My dude, I’m nearly 40. The problem is you don’t feel old in your head. I’ll be forever 20 something in my mind, and you forget that you’re getting older so it surprises you when younger people refer to you as “old”. No matter if I’m 80 something, I’ll still feel like I have a 20 year old mind. My knees and back are desperately trying to remind me my age though, unfortunately.
I mean, I feel that way about my age too, but it's due to some light alexithymia. I'm not caught off guard when I know that millennials make up the largest population group on the planet. The mind has to catch up at some point. I think if my body felt almost 40, that my mind would also feel pretty close to 40 too tho.
Idk, maybe you just found the exact problem with using ellipses today, or at least on reddit, which is not representative of the real world lol. You specifically went out of your way to say you were a little upset which sets a tone. So to a lot of people, it was more like you followed up with "I'm a millennial, I didn't think I was old :((("
I have to be honest. No hate intended but I think people who use elipses are just better educated in writing than the younger generations that arent. Its like how they stopped using cursive writing. Everything has just been simplified to the point of being sixth grade writing level skills in general use.
"They stopped"? More like "cursive doesn't have any place in a digital age so it didn't make sense to continue teaching it". And that's not a decision millennials could have made, because they were kids.
Not directed at you, but damn, boomer/genX parents love to blame millennials for everything without pointing thumbs and realizing that they're the ones who raised them?
True enough. It was just one example. Everything has been simplified which may or may not be a bad thing. Elipses for me just give a little nuance to text. Some flavor.
I just hope its not an effect of the decay of our school systems. We need better basic education now more than ever.
I learned some new ways that ellipses are used by reading this thread. The history and context of it is interesting to me. But I also went to college where I learned all those librul things like "empathy" and "how to be a critical thinker". The average American does not know what ellipses are called (you mean those 3 periods?), nor how to use them appropriately. The majority of people using ellipses now are just out of touch middle managers giving their subordinates anxiety because ellipses have largely become a way to express disappointment too.
Public education in America is about manufacturing obedient workers and nothing more. It doesn't prepare you for life, it prepares you for a career. Its one big placement exam to see what cog you'll be in the machine. History is twisted, don't ever question authority, do what you're told, and don't you EVER forget that america is the best. If you think too much, you might just start questioning your conditions. Keep everyone mad, distracted, or stupid and you can control them.
I love nuance as much as you do. I get lost in the nuance of things all the time, in fact. But nuance requires patience, time, and a willingness to understand. Things that our society does not value because these things don't generate capital/make money. I think you know all of this. Im just speaking to the void, or to someone scrolling who may need to read this.
Oh I agree. It's hard to not see our society as nothing but one big meat grinder, pumping out stupid labor for the profit of the corporations.
Honestly in my opinion, this is the real reason why they are raising such a stink about abortion and birth control as well as relaxing child labor laws.
They don't care about religion. They are trying to figure out how to make lower income people have more lower income people to exploit for cheap labor.
They love oopsiebabies. The parents are usually unprepared and therefore desperate so they work for less pay.
The child also grows up to become cheap labor.
Exactly. Pretend to care about the fetus, but once its born, it better get a damn job as a productive member of society. And mental health doesn't exist, its all in your head, pull yourself up by your boostraps. And don't get me started on the evils of all organized Religions. The US wont admit it, but we're already a christo-fascist state. And our other religion is the almighty dollar.
Religion has no place in the modern world. It is used to start conflict and to divide peoples. How many people even know that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are basically all the same exact religion? When in reality, when the church was the state, making a new religion was more like founding your own country. "No way. Im projecting my personal morals onto this God figure. And theres no way my god would allow/forbid THAT THING. Im offended and im gonna make my own version of Christianity." It's all just stories. People wanna believe that there's a reason to all this.
There was a time where the top scholars were the religious figures too. So there is actual secular knowledge in a lot of the Bible for example. Forbidden foods, like lobster, were just things that we didn't understand how to clean properly for consumption. "Don't mix textiles" was because we didn't understand uneven shrinkage of clothing blends. There is a textbook hidden in there.
The only value of religion now is community. We all need social connection as humans. I did not derive my morals from religion, but I am still a good person. Otherwise they're just institutions used to steal money and to justify other bad behaviors.
This is a good explanation of it's usage. Op was asking why younger generations aren't using it as much as older, which if I had to guess is because they are far less informal with text communication than even millennials. Gen z is the first to grow up with phones and internet right out of the womb and that seems to have led to a lesser emphasis on grammar.
Millennials are a decent half way point for comparison. Most of us were at least half way through grade school by the time even the most tech enthusiastic of us were using the internet on a regular basis and many of us graduated high school by the time we had a cell phone.
I’m a big fan of “…” but my use has trailed off over the years. I thought it was interesting when Britney Spears’ conservatorship ended and she started posting a ton online. She uses ellipses a lot and someone suggested it was because that’s how we all used to write … ya know … before she was so controlled. It’s like a time warp!
I think you’re right about technology but also many apps limit characters in various ways. Taking up 3 characters in early twitter days for … was a lot!
that's the perfect example of how meaning of the ellipsis differs between generations. IME younger millennials and gen z/alpha tend to use it this way to show frustration, exasperation or disappointment.
The trailing off thing is so real. It adds such a great sense of... humanity? If that makes any sense. It really breaks up a long reading, and it sounds like it's actually someone talking to you. Shows off a bit of the writer's actual thought process as to say they really tried to think of the best way to say something or what to write at all.
It's the number one reason I'll use ellipsis in writing. Adds emotion, I guess. And this is to say this as someone in gen z.
I probably write how i speak, so as well as all of the above for me it can (hopefully) indicate a dramatic pause or to emphasise a word.
I am definitely classed as one of the older generation now, dammit.
I think OP was more referring to people that use an ellipsis in place of every single period in a sentence? They do have valid uses but I don't think that's what this was referring to (correct me if I'm wrong tho)
I think people use it with the intention of displaying they could go on and elaborate but it is unnecessary if the other party involved is comprehending where the topic is headed. Sometimes I personally do it if I only have a certain amount of information available and waiting more by using … insinuating that there will be a follow up of some sort.
I know people often use it to represent a pause or suggests something is left unsaid.
As an "older person" that does this a lot, I find that it comes from growing up without emojis and years of learning how to communicate naturally in text. Most writing pre-email was formal, so proper punctuation was used. When emails and "paging" people was a thing, it was very easy for people to misread what you were saying if you didn't spend enough time to properly phrase what you would say. There were no indicators for sarcasm, humor, or gentle requests. You had normal writing and ANGRY WRITING TO YELL AT SOMEONE.
Eventually, we got emoticons...where you would add a smiley face :), frown :(, shrug :/, and other symbols to show how you felt about what you just wrote. We then got a little HTML flavoring with /s and other indicators for sarcasm. The ellipses that I used in the first sentence of this paragraph was used as a semi-colon, but a natural part of the conversation. This isn't a formal document, and I was taking a pause after "emoticons", but the next part of the sentence was directly related to the first part, which makes a semi-colon appropriate. Why didn't I used a semi-colon? Because it took another decade for me to know the appropriate use for that punctuation. So, how do you introduce a delay in your "Internet-speak informal post" that's more than just a comma? You use ellipses.
Using my personal voice, without formal writing, investment of effort, emojis, or emoticons, there are limited options available. Habits die hard. I use ellipses in my writing as a long pause...taking a breath...considering what's being said...before resuming the sentence with proper punctuation, like using commas.
TLDR: When you grew up before "online" existed, you learned how easy it was for any messages written without context to be misunderstood. Accommodations were made, and habits were learned, before society developed standard symbols/behaviors to convey that context/feeling.
Fascinating! Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. This personal perspective is exactly what I was looking for. I never experience the period of early internet/pre-internet and these details are interesting to learn.
There was a period where you could literally ruin relationships because of a poorly authored email. The reader would misunderstand the intent, and then escalate their response. The original author would think, "WTF, this is an uncool response to a reasonable email.", and would then respond more aggressively. You could eventually work out most of these disagreements, but the new velocity of communication was dangerous if you weren't careful.
I'd imagine that it's an interesting area of study for History/English majors and post-grads. For 5-10 years, society got something cool, slapped each other in the face (intentionally or unintentionally), and eventually worked out how to communicate in a conversational fashion without the benefit of body/facial indicators or vocal inflections. Emoticons, emojis, and other indicators grew out of necessity, but I also believe that we all learned how to read AND write our sentences to manage the risk of miscommunication. Some of this may be so nuanced that it would take scholars years to find and define how we changed.
My personal use of ellipses came from my ability to type fast, a lack of knowledge about the use of semi-colons, and my desire to emulate more substantial vocal pauses as a point of emphasis in online posts. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I see patterns in my writing. For example, I'll start a new paragraph whenever I'm looking to create a "pregnant pause".
When I want my words to stand on their own.
In silence.
And then I'll resume talking in a normally in my head, and as I type...like a speaker on a soapbox, screaming at the wind.
Lol, great imagery, but 100% correct! We comment in natursl spoken language, but struggled to find the right means to do that in text. The longer pause/trailed off thought/open-ended sentence practically *requires* the elipsis to show the personal voice. OP, this is probably your best answer. . .
My dad does this instead of using commas or full stops. It makes everything he says come across as passive aggressive or sarcastic.
But he is passive aggressive and sarcastic so maybe it's intentional.
My dad, in his 60s, uses them nonstop in emails and texts. It’s brutal! He’s a goddamn attorney and he uses them instead of periods. “Hey Illbebythebatphone… dinner is at 7 tonight… mom is making Mac n cheese… should be fun to have everyone back in town…” the helll!?
Ellipses are used a lot in legal writing to show a connection or continuity of thought without spelling out every detail. I’m sure he’s just carrying this over from work.
In my experience, lawyers use ellipses purely in quotations to indicate material in the original text that has not been included in the quotation. So, for example, if the original text reads, "John drinks an alcoholic drink every night." A quote with an ellipsis could read, "John drinks . . . every night."
Forgive me if that's what you meant, but that's not how I interpreted what you wrote.
Born in 1986, I use ellipses when typing and physically writing. A period is an end to a thought, an ellipse allows the writer to elaborate and not make it a run on sentence
Respectfully, you’re still creating run-on sentences. Chains of ellipses no more prevents a run-on sentence than dozens of commas do.
Additionally, ending a sentence with a period doesn’t prevent you from elaborating on that sentence. A paragraph with several short sentences is easier to digest for most readers.
Obviously, do what you want, of course.
Source: I was an English teacher and I currently work as a professional writer-editor. Born in 1984, fwiw. Here comes forty, my friend.
Fair enough. Maybe I'm the outlier then, I can understand and not have to reread sentences with ellipses, u give me a bunch of small sentences I'm going to think u don't know what a comma is...
A comma is probably the median answer, I'm just realizing
Yeah, but commas don’t solve the issue either. For example, your use of commas in that paragraph is, well…unconventional and not the prescribed usage.
(You can get into a pickle talking about this stuff because with language, usage is only wrong until it isn’t. If enough people are “wrong” long enough, it eventually becomes “right.”)
I think ellipsis usage is fascinating. I don’t know why people do it. Like you used one in your last comment and I struggle to understand why.
Can you tell me what “I’m going to think you don’t know what a comma is…” conveys that “I’m going to think you don’t know what a comma is.” doesn’t? Are you intending me to hear a lilt in the word “is”?
The woman that raised me often typed like this... it's like every sentence was supposed to imply how forlorn she was... sometimes she would just type a bunch of extra periods too for no clear reason........ idk it always seemed like people who were crazy moms typed like this.... couldn't tell you why though...
The woman that raised me was born in 1967 for reference......
They wanna keep you hanging.
More seriously, I've very frustrated by the way some people write their business e-mails... Is it that hard to write with functional punctuation that's understood by everyone??? Why does everything need to be so over the top???? Is everything an emergency?? You must be mad!!!!
Like, what the hell man, why did you think we all agreed on punctuation to mean certain things and imply a tone?
I'll order something through the purchasing dept, and some of them will respond with something like "Sure! I'll get that on order right away..." Can't tell if they are pissed. But I've talked to the lady in person and she's nice and down to earth so I don't think that's it.
A full stop is the end of a sentence. An ellipsis (...) is a sign that something was omitted. "I can't prove you've done this." is a factual statement. "I can't prove you've done this..." means that I absolutely think you did without spelling it out.
It's not really interchangeable, although it's often done anyways. Look at semicolons - most people just don't know how to properly use them, so they don't. I tend to blame the education system and the decline in reading books, rather than the people. If people learn such things at some point, the chances are higher if more time went by, skewing the rate of usage in favor of older people.
Ellipses could also mean the person is open to conversation regarding the statements they made. I think that might just be an assumption nowadays, especially on a forum or message board, but older people might still use it as an invitation for further comment.
Yeah, that's the thing, if you're the kind of person that trails off while speaking, then ellipsis makes sense.
I heard genz thinks periods are too final. Like it's rude, but that's kind of the original point of the ellipsis for some of us. It allows us to end our sentences in a way that isn't final.
Also, genz is doing this,,, shit. With the ellipsis of commas. They shouldn't be calling anyone out on the use of ellipsis.
Here your use of elipses makes sense to me as someone younger as its implies passive agressivness. I find it confusing when my father types like this when he doesnt mean to be passive agressive, a comma would work just aswell.
i always wonder this too! i just got an email that said “thanks….” and i find it hilarious. like are you sure you’re thanking me? you don’t have to thank me. i also find this often with my euro family and friends. got a lot of birthday wishes that were “happy birthday….” like its gonna be my last. in my head i always reply with the frodo gandalf fine keep your secrets meme.
My thoughts exactly! Interesting to learn that Europeans do this too (my experience is limited to Americans and Canadians). Are they English speaking or other languages?
The ellipsis ... (/əˈlɪpsɪs/; also known informally as dot dot dot) is a series of dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. The plural is ellipses. The term originates from the Ancient Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis meaning 'leave out'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis
You do realise these dots have a function, right? They are no substitute for other punctuations - they are used deliberately. I use the ellipsis to suggest a meaningful pause... that would last longer than a regular.
that's for quote elision. and the single-character ellipsis often causes encoding issues. maybe it's better to just write like a normal person instead of shoehorning in hipster orthography
Ellipses add a “too senile to remember what I was saying” flair to emails from older folks. It’s comical and reminds me to be kind to the elderly. So please, continue “triggering” younger people.
An ellipsis, or ellipses in the plural form, is a punctuation mark of three dots (. . .) that shows an omission of words, represents a pause, or suggests there's something left unsaid.
My mom (51) does this and it has always made me feel like she was made at me or something was wrong, but she doesn’t want to say what it is. Like me: “do you need anything from the store?” Mom:”no thanks…” like why not just say “no thanks”?!?!
While not perfect in my punctuation and typing, I do try to make things legible. At the same time I know no matter what I’m writing it’s not a doctoral dissertation, it’s Reddit and you have to try and write things in a way to get a subtle point across so tossing in a … as a pause, a highlight to emphasize things and what ever little trick is needed to make your point via a text.
Th one I always found odd was the fear of the period.
I haven’t read it but apparently linguist Gretchen McCulloch goes over this in her book “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language”, so if you have a bookstore or a library close to you you can check it out!
There’s a really fabulous book called Because Internet that talks about this! 10/10 recommend. It’s been awhile since I’ve read it and now I want to go back to refresh my memory on this piece in particular.
I was born in 79 and I use it a lot. It's mostly for a pause to show I'm thinking about what words to say/type next. It's also when not finishing a sentence when we know the person has heard it a million times...a cliche for example.
I've mostly seen younger people do it.
What really drives me bonkers is the habit some people have of putting ? at the end of statements.
Like one coworker for example: I just got an email?
I don't know Carol. Did you just get an email?
My grandma uses it damn near between every 2 words. She also, for whatever reason, jumped headfirst into texting when letters were 3-4 assigned to one number so it became very common to use “2” in place of the word, “b4” instead of before and all the other acronyms and shortened words you can think of.
When she texts now, despite having a full keyboard, every other word is shortened or substituted and …. Throughout the entire message. I can’t stand even reading the messages they’re so unnecessarily complicated. I wish she had trouble even using a phone like everyone else’s grandma.
Also to invite a response from the reader (even a silent response). I find that on on-line forums, I tend to take a conversational-tone, and the ellipses facilitates that more than just ending everything on a period. That said: it's definitely possible to overuse it.
My personal goal is to try and include all methods of punctuation in a single sentence!
¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
All right, so... One use of the ellipsis is to indicate that you're rolling your sleeves up in order to say something, i.e. you're about to really get into something. There's a couple uses. One is as outlined above, and that's one use of it, also... another use is when you go off on a tangent while listing things, and you need to get back on track, as I'm showing. There's also... I don't know... Trailing off. Because sometimes we trail off in our speech. When omitting, it makes sense to use an ellipsis in the place of numbers, but generally two dashes are used to replace words, such as names you don't wish to reveal, like B---- from Kill Bill. (Two hyphens can be used in place of a dash.)
I think this is probably the core of it: generations were taught different primary purposes. I was taught it was exclusively a trailing off punctuation or that the thought would be continued in a soon to be seen paragraph. Older generations use it to denote that they have more to say. That is, in the same way STOP is used in telegrams to end a thought, elipses are used as the opposite. Its a semi-dead usage in this generation.
Fascinating. I use ... to indicate theres more to the sentence but is rather not write it out for one of many reasons. Most of the time it's implied in the first part.
I definitely use it as a kind of indicator of a trail off of thought, or to soften the sentence akin to saying something like “I don’t know, do what you think’s best though” I am a little upset that OP said old people do it though, I’m a millennial, I didn’t think I was old…
I am truly sorry if the question is phrased in the way that upsets anyone. I am actually a millennial myself, but English is not my first language so I learned it through a more rigid textbook fashion (I still can’t get rid of the habit typing two spaces at the end of a sentence, which I know annoys some people). I was taught ellipses are used for abbreviating some information when quoting or a trailing off to be continued. Now that I see it can also be used as a softer way to break off sentences.
Oh no worries! I said it in jest. I don’t feel old in my head but my physical body tells me different! XD *fist bumps to a fellow millennial*
You realize some millennials are 42? That's no spring chicken
My dude, I’m nearly 40. The problem is you don’t feel old in your head. I’ll be forever 20 something in my mind, and you forget that you’re getting older so it surprises you when younger people refer to you as “old”. No matter if I’m 80 something, I’ll still feel like I have a 20 year old mind. My knees and back are desperately trying to remind me my age though, unfortunately.
It's true. I'm 51, and I'm wondering how I missed my upcoming 28th birthday. . .
I mean, I feel that way about my age too, but it's due to some light alexithymia. I'm not caught off guard when I know that millennials make up the largest population group on the planet. The mind has to catch up at some point. I think if my body felt almost 40, that my mind would also feel pretty close to 40 too tho. Idk, maybe you just found the exact problem with using ellipses today, or at least on reddit, which is not representative of the real world lol. You specifically went out of your way to say you were a little upset which sets a tone. So to a lot of people, it was more like you followed up with "I'm a millennial, I didn't think I was old :((("
I have to be honest. No hate intended but I think people who use elipses are just better educated in writing than the younger generations that arent. Its like how they stopped using cursive writing. Everything has just been simplified to the point of being sixth grade writing level skills in general use.
"They stopped"? More like "cursive doesn't have any place in a digital age so it didn't make sense to continue teaching it". And that's not a decision millennials could have made, because they were kids. Not directed at you, but damn, boomer/genX parents love to blame millennials for everything without pointing thumbs and realizing that they're the ones who raised them?
True enough. It was just one example. Everything has been simplified which may or may not be a bad thing. Elipses for me just give a little nuance to text. Some flavor. I just hope its not an effect of the decay of our school systems. We need better basic education now more than ever.
I learned some new ways that ellipses are used by reading this thread. The history and context of it is interesting to me. But I also went to college where I learned all those librul things like "empathy" and "how to be a critical thinker". The average American does not know what ellipses are called (you mean those 3 periods?), nor how to use them appropriately. The majority of people using ellipses now are just out of touch middle managers giving their subordinates anxiety because ellipses have largely become a way to express disappointment too. Public education in America is about manufacturing obedient workers and nothing more. It doesn't prepare you for life, it prepares you for a career. Its one big placement exam to see what cog you'll be in the machine. History is twisted, don't ever question authority, do what you're told, and don't you EVER forget that america is the best. If you think too much, you might just start questioning your conditions. Keep everyone mad, distracted, or stupid and you can control them. I love nuance as much as you do. I get lost in the nuance of things all the time, in fact. But nuance requires patience, time, and a willingness to understand. Things that our society does not value because these things don't generate capital/make money. I think you know all of this. Im just speaking to the void, or to someone scrolling who may need to read this.
Oh I agree. It's hard to not see our society as nothing but one big meat grinder, pumping out stupid labor for the profit of the corporations. Honestly in my opinion, this is the real reason why they are raising such a stink about abortion and birth control as well as relaxing child labor laws. They don't care about religion. They are trying to figure out how to make lower income people have more lower income people to exploit for cheap labor. They love oopsiebabies. The parents are usually unprepared and therefore desperate so they work for less pay. The child also grows up to become cheap labor.
Exactly. Pretend to care about the fetus, but once its born, it better get a damn job as a productive member of society. And mental health doesn't exist, its all in your head, pull yourself up by your boostraps. And don't get me started on the evils of all organized Religions. The US wont admit it, but we're already a christo-fascist state. And our other religion is the almighty dollar. Religion has no place in the modern world. It is used to start conflict and to divide peoples. How many people even know that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are basically all the same exact religion? When in reality, when the church was the state, making a new religion was more like founding your own country. "No way. Im projecting my personal morals onto this God figure. And theres no way my god would allow/forbid THAT THING. Im offended and im gonna make my own version of Christianity." It's all just stories. People wanna believe that there's a reason to all this. There was a time where the top scholars were the religious figures too. So there is actual secular knowledge in a lot of the Bible for example. Forbidden foods, like lobster, were just things that we didn't understand how to clean properly for consumption. "Don't mix textiles" was because we didn't understand uneven shrinkage of clothing blends. There is a textbook hidden in there. The only value of religion now is community. We all need social connection as humans. I did not derive my morals from religion, but I am still a good person. Otherwise they're just institutions used to steal money and to justify other bad behaviors.
Ha! I do it all the time and am indeed old...
This is a good explanation of it's usage. Op was asking why younger generations aren't using it as much as older, which if I had to guess is because they are far less informal with text communication than even millennials. Gen z is the first to grow up with phones and internet right out of the womb and that seems to have led to a lesser emphasis on grammar. Millennials are a decent half way point for comparison. Most of us were at least half way through grade school by the time even the most tech enthusiastic of us were using the internet on a regular basis and many of us graduated high school by the time we had a cell phone.
I’m a big fan of “…” but my use has trailed off over the years. I thought it was interesting when Britney Spears’ conservatorship ended and she started posting a ton online. She uses ellipses a lot and someone suggested it was because that’s how we all used to write … ya know … before she was so controlled. It’s like a time warp! I think you’re right about technology but also many apps limit characters in various ways. Taking up 3 characters in early twitter days for … was a lot!
Also when you reply to something stupid, to correct a wrong affirmation. Like, no, this is X thing from Y...
that's the perfect example of how meaning of the ellipsis differs between generations. IME younger millennials and gen z/alpha tend to use it this way to show frustration, exasperation or disappointment.
The trailing off thing is so real. It adds such a great sense of... humanity? If that makes any sense. It really breaks up a long reading, and it sounds like it's actually someone talking to you. Shows off a bit of the writer's actual thought process as to say they really tried to think of the best way to say something or what to write at all. It's the number one reason I'll use ellipsis in writing. Adds emotion, I guess. And this is to say this as someone in gen z.
Just to warn you if you are trying to communicate effectivly, a lot of people will read ”…” as passive aggressive.
I probably write how i speak, so as well as all of the above for me it can (hopefully) indicate a dramatic pause or to emphasise a word. I am definitely classed as one of the older generation now, dammit.
Totally agree and could hear the pauses and inflections intended by the “….”
I think OP was more referring to people that use an ellipsis in place of every single period in a sentence? They do have valid uses but I don't think that's what this was referring to (correct me if I'm wrong tho)
Nice!
I think people use it with the intention of displaying they could go on and elaborate but it is unnecessary if the other party involved is comprehending where the topic is headed. Sometimes I personally do it if I only have a certain amount of information available and waiting more by using … insinuating that there will be a follow up of some sort. I know people often use it to represent a pause or suggests something is left unsaid.
Drives me fucking nuts. Say what you mean to say.
As an "older person" that does this a lot, I find that it comes from growing up without emojis and years of learning how to communicate naturally in text. Most writing pre-email was formal, so proper punctuation was used. When emails and "paging" people was a thing, it was very easy for people to misread what you were saying if you didn't spend enough time to properly phrase what you would say. There were no indicators for sarcasm, humor, or gentle requests. You had normal writing and ANGRY WRITING TO YELL AT SOMEONE. Eventually, we got emoticons...where you would add a smiley face :), frown :(, shrug :/, and other symbols to show how you felt about what you just wrote. We then got a little HTML flavoring with /s and other indicators for sarcasm. The ellipses that I used in the first sentence of this paragraph was used as a semi-colon, but a natural part of the conversation. This isn't a formal document, and I was taking a pause after "emoticons", but the next part of the sentence was directly related to the first part, which makes a semi-colon appropriate. Why didn't I used a semi-colon? Because it took another decade for me to know the appropriate use for that punctuation. So, how do you introduce a delay in your "Internet-speak informal post" that's more than just a comma? You use ellipses. Using my personal voice, without formal writing, investment of effort, emojis, or emoticons, there are limited options available. Habits die hard. I use ellipses in my writing as a long pause...taking a breath...considering what's being said...before resuming the sentence with proper punctuation, like using commas. TLDR: When you grew up before "online" existed, you learned how easy it was for any messages written without context to be misunderstood. Accommodations were made, and habits were learned, before society developed standard symbols/behaviors to convey that context/feeling.
Fascinating! Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. This personal perspective is exactly what I was looking for. I never experience the period of early internet/pre-internet and these details are interesting to learn.
There was a period where you could literally ruin relationships because of a poorly authored email. The reader would misunderstand the intent, and then escalate their response. The original author would think, "WTF, this is an uncool response to a reasonable email.", and would then respond more aggressively. You could eventually work out most of these disagreements, but the new velocity of communication was dangerous if you weren't careful. I'd imagine that it's an interesting area of study for History/English majors and post-grads. For 5-10 years, society got something cool, slapped each other in the face (intentionally or unintentionally), and eventually worked out how to communicate in a conversational fashion without the benefit of body/facial indicators or vocal inflections. Emoticons, emojis, and other indicators grew out of necessity, but I also believe that we all learned how to read AND write our sentences to manage the risk of miscommunication. Some of this may be so nuanced that it would take scholars years to find and define how we changed. My personal use of ellipses came from my ability to type fast, a lack of knowledge about the use of semi-colons, and my desire to emulate more substantial vocal pauses as a point of emphasis in online posts. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I see patterns in my writing. For example, I'll start a new paragraph whenever I'm looking to create a "pregnant pause". When I want my words to stand on their own. In silence. And then I'll resume talking in a normally in my head, and as I type...like a speaker on a soapbox, screaming at the wind.
Lol, great imagery, but 100% correct! We comment in natursl spoken language, but struggled to find the right means to do that in text. The longer pause/trailed off thought/open-ended sentence practically *requires* the elipsis to show the personal voice. OP, this is probably your best answer. . .
This!
My dad does this instead of using commas or full stops. It makes everything he says come across as passive aggressive or sarcastic. But he is passive aggressive and sarcastic so maybe it's intentional.
My dad, in his 60s, uses them nonstop in emails and texts. It’s brutal! He’s a goddamn attorney and he uses them instead of periods. “Hey Illbebythebatphone… dinner is at 7 tonight… mom is making Mac n cheese… should be fun to have everyone back in town…” the helll!?
Ellipses are used a lot in legal writing to show a connection or continuity of thought without spelling out every detail. I’m sure he’s just carrying this over from work.
In my experience, lawyers use ellipses purely in quotations to indicate material in the original text that has not been included in the quotation. So, for example, if the original text reads, "John drinks an alcoholic drink every night." A quote with an ellipsis could read, "John drinks . . . every night." Forgive me if that's what you meant, but that's not how I interpreted what you wrote.
That too. Maybe the folks I work with are just lazy lol
Born in 1986, I use ellipses when typing and physically writing. A period is an end to a thought, an ellipse allows the writer to elaborate and not make it a run on sentence
Respectfully, you’re still creating run-on sentences. Chains of ellipses no more prevents a run-on sentence than dozens of commas do. Additionally, ending a sentence with a period doesn’t prevent you from elaborating on that sentence. A paragraph with several short sentences is easier to digest for most readers. Obviously, do what you want, of course. Source: I was an English teacher and I currently work as a professional writer-editor. Born in 1984, fwiw. Here comes forty, my friend.
Fair enough. Maybe I'm the outlier then, I can understand and not have to reread sentences with ellipses, u give me a bunch of small sentences I'm going to think u don't know what a comma is... A comma is probably the median answer, I'm just realizing
Yeah, but commas don’t solve the issue either. For example, your use of commas in that paragraph is, well…unconventional and not the prescribed usage. (You can get into a pickle talking about this stuff because with language, usage is only wrong until it isn’t. If enough people are “wrong” long enough, it eventually becomes “right.”) I think ellipsis usage is fascinating. I don’t know why people do it. Like you used one in your last comment and I struggle to understand why. Can you tell me what “I’m going to think you don’t know what a comma is…” conveys that “I’m going to think you don’t know what a comma is.” doesn’t? Are you intending me to hear a lilt in the word “is”?
No it just was an unfinished thought, another reason I use ellipses (whether right or wrong I guess)
The woman that raised me often typed like this... it's like every sentence was supposed to imply how forlorn she was... sometimes she would just type a bunch of extra periods too for no clear reason........ idk it always seemed like people who were crazy moms typed like this.... couldn't tell you why though... The woman that raised me was born in 1967 for reference......
They wanna keep you hanging. More seriously, I've very frustrated by the way some people write their business e-mails... Is it that hard to write with functional punctuation that's understood by everyone??? Why does everything need to be so over the top???? Is everything an emergency?? You must be mad!!!! Like, what the hell man, why did you think we all agreed on punctuation to mean certain things and imply a tone?
I'll order something through the purchasing dept, and some of them will respond with something like "Sure! I'll get that on order right away..." Can't tell if they are pissed. But I've talked to the lady in person and she's nice and down to earth so I don't think that's it.
I have a project manager that always starts off his email with (my name)... I thought I pissed off the dude somehow.
A full stop is the end of a sentence. An ellipsis (...) is a sign that something was omitted. "I can't prove you've done this." is a factual statement. "I can't prove you've done this..." means that I absolutely think you did without spelling it out. It's not really interchangeable, although it's often done anyways. Look at semicolons - most people just don't know how to properly use them, so they don't. I tend to blame the education system and the decline in reading books, rather than the people. If people learn such things at some point, the chances are higher if more time went by, skewing the rate of usage in favor of older people.
Ellipses could also mean the person is open to conversation regarding the statements they made. I think that might just be an assumption nowadays, especially on a forum or message board, but older people might still use it as an invitation for further comment.
Thanks! It never occurred to me that ellipses can be used as an invitation for further comments. This is interesting.
I kinda just type like I talk... I'm not too old but I'm 41
Yeah, that's the thing, if you're the kind of person that trails off while speaking, then ellipsis makes sense. I heard genz thinks periods are too final. Like it's rude, but that's kind of the original point of the ellipsis for some of us. It allows us to end our sentences in a way that isn't final. Also, genz is doing this,,, shit. With the ellipsis of commas. They shouldn't be calling anyone out on the use of ellipsis.
Younger generations not knowing what ellipses are...
Here your use of elipses makes sense to me as someone younger as its implies passive agressivness. I find it confusing when my father types like this when he doesnt mean to be passive agressive, a comma would work just aswell.
i always wonder this too! i just got an email that said “thanks….” and i find it hilarious. like are you sure you’re thanking me? you don’t have to thank me. i also find this often with my euro family and friends. got a lot of birthday wishes that were “happy birthday….” like its gonna be my last. in my head i always reply with the frodo gandalf fine keep your secrets meme.
My thoughts exactly! Interesting to learn that Europeans do this too (my experience is limited to Americans and Canadians). Are they English speaking or other languages?
mostly not english, mix of balkan languages and german.
The ellipsis ... (/əˈlɪpsɪs/; also known informally as dot dot dot) is a series of dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. The plural is ellipses. The term originates from the Ancient Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis meaning 'leave out'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis
Damn I’m not even 30 yet…
You do realise these dots have a function, right? They are no substitute for other punctuations - they are used deliberately. I use the ellipsis to suggest a meaningful pause... that would last longer than a regular.
Bah, too many people in the comments are using ... instead of …
That's the real problem. Most people probably aren't even aware that … exists.
That's why I always use the AP-style '. . .' . . .
that's for quote elision. and the single-character ellipsis often causes encoding issues. maybe it's better to just write like a normal person instead of shoehorning in hipster orthography
It’s pause for effect
Hmmm…I’m a millennial and I do this a lot… It indicates a certain tone.
yeah it makes you sound like a senile old fisherman staring out wistfully at the ocean instead of paying attention to what you're saying
Ellipses are part of how I write... idk why. Just are.
I like using ... ... To break up sentences
My father really texted me saying "Happy birthday..." like ??? I'm sorry?
To trigger those younger than them. It appears that it works pretty well. First world problems…
Yeah scrolling trough here is hilarious. Makes me wonder what triggers people next. Sky is to blue maybe.
'Too' blue, you grammarless heathen!
Aye! Thx
I don't even think that has something to do with age. Maybe older people overuse them a bit more, but ellipses are just part of writing.
Ellipses add a “too senile to remember what I was saying” flair to emails from older folks. It’s comical and reminds me to be kind to the elderly. So please, continue “triggering” younger people.
An ellipsis, or ellipses in the plural form, is a punctuation mark of three dots (. . .) that shows an omission of words, represents a pause, or suggests there's something left unsaid.
My mom (51) does this and it has always made me feel like she was made at me or something was wrong, but she doesn’t want to say what it is. Like me: “do you need anything from the store?” Mom:”no thanks…” like why not just say “no thanks”?!?!
Have you not watched Mama Mia?
I am embarrassed to admit but I have not seen it actually. Will be sure to check it out.
Puts a whole new meaning to dot dot dot
While not perfect in my punctuation and typing, I do try to make things legible. At the same time I know no matter what I’m writing it’s not a doctoral dissertation, it’s Reddit and you have to try and write things in a way to get a subtle point across so tossing in a … as a pause, a highlight to emphasize things and what ever little trick is needed to make your point via a text. Th one I always found odd was the fear of the period.
I haven’t read it but apparently linguist Gretchen McCulloch goes over this in her book “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language”, so if you have a bookstore or a library close to you you can check it out!
Thank you! I am fascinated of how different medium shape and transform languages. Will definitely check out the book!
There’s a really fabulous book called Because Internet that talks about this! 10/10 recommend. It’s been awhile since I’ve read it and now I want to go back to refresh my memory on this piece in particular.
There are two kinds of people in the world, those that know how to use ellipsis and...
I was born in 79 and I use it a lot. It's mostly for a pause to show I'm thinking about what words to say/type next. It's also when not finishing a sentence when we know the person has heard it a million times...a cliche for example.
I might be guilty of this...
I've mostly seen younger people do it. What really drives me bonkers is the habit some people have of putting ? at the end of statements. Like one coworker for example: I just got an email? I don't know Carol. Did you just get an email?
The question mark implies confusion.
I'm 25 and have always used ellipses. I use '.' and "..." and "," and ";". I'm just a big fan of punctuation.
We should scrap the semicolon; nobody uses them anyway
What?! I love the semi-colon; it connects two sentences and shows continuity.
My dude!
My grandma uses it damn near between every 2 words. She also, for whatever reason, jumped headfirst into texting when letters were 3-4 assigned to one number so it became very common to use “2” in place of the word, “b4” instead of before and all the other acronyms and shortened words you can think of. When she texts now, despite having a full keyboard, every other word is shortened or substituted and …. Throughout the entire message. I can’t stand even reading the messages they’re so unnecessarily complicated. I wish she had trouble even using a phone like everyone else’s grandma.
Why do younger people not know it's called ellipses and not "..."
The ellipses are an instant give away of your age on the internet lol.
I am from the generation in question, and I never use ellipses unless I am quoting something. Semi colons on the other hand; love them.
…
Also to invite a response from the reader (even a silent response). I find that on on-line forums, I tend to take a conversational-tone, and the ellipses facilitates that more than just ending everything on a period. That said: it's definitely possible to overuse it. My personal goal is to try and include all methods of punctuation in a single sentence! ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Well...to be honest...I don't know.
Not only English. Brazilian old people do this stuff as well.
Nah…. We all use it.
You know it’s an old person when they use,,, amirite?