I always thought that, when leaving some part of a quote out, you put parentheses around the ellipse (either () or []). Doesn't that make it clearer, especially if you then put a full stop right after the ellipse and end up with 4 points in a row?

I have seen some texts use [...], but from what I have been taught, you can just use the ellipse without anything extra.

Can i start a sentence with ellipses ?

Yes you can, depending on the context. Generally, having ellipses at the beginning of a sentence shows a continuation of speech. For example: ...So that's how I met your mother. This would make sense only if you gave that information before. It can also be used when writing dialogue when someone stops mid-sentence, and continues from there. Beware, though, that ellipses also mean a pause in speech. In my previous example, it would work just fine without the ellipses in the beginning. E.g: So that's how I met your mother. Attention, ellipses in the beginning of a sentence are quite informal! If you are writing an essay, I'd suggest not to use it!

If you end your sentence with an ellipsis, how do you know if the period is part of the ellipsis or if it's the period?

yeah! ... is an ellipses where as . is a period.

If I change deleted part of a quote, should I add a space before ellipses? And is it needed at all to add spaces after and (sometimes) before ellipses? After I knew about dashes, I'm now not sure... :)

Editing a direct quotation can get a little tricky. If you are only omitting something (like a name) you could use an ellipsis, but if you are editing it (such as inserting a person's name instead of a pronoun like he or she) generally you put the edit in square brackets `[David]`.

Does there necessarily have to be 3 periods to represent ellipses? Can there be more to indecate a *really* long pause?

I suppose, but using more than 3 would probably be considered informal.

on 0:06 David spelled Elipsis "Elipses" but on the Khan Academy Work page it is Spelled "Elipsis" CAn anyone see that as well?

Both are correct. 'Elipses' is the plural form of elipsis.

Would you be able to use the ellipses for both purposes in one sentence? Like, if you were quoting someone, but the quote had a pause in it AND you took out a part. Like, say you were quoting some important person named Fred or something, and you said "I do declare... Life as we know it... will surely end." That would cause confusion, probably, so would you be able to use it this way?

I would agree that using ellipses in this way may be confusing. It may be slightly less confusing if you were to put the set of ellipses denoting an elimination within brackets. For example: Fred said, "I do declare [...] Life as we know it ... will surely end." The first set of ellipses would then imply an elimination and the second a pause. This is merely a suggestion, since there is no formal rule that declares that you must put ellipses that denote elimination with these brackets. In some academic communities, it's preferred, but like I said, currently it's not something that you have to do.

i always thought it was ... not . . .

Thank you very much. I did not think about the font difference.

Can't ellipses also have four periods like this ....?

Three dots comprise an ellipsis (which has its own meaning and function). A fourth dot would be the period that finishes the sentence.

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Grammar

Course: Grammar > Unit 7

Lesson 4: Hyphens, dashes, and ellipses

Ellipses

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Yago
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Yago's post “I always thought that, wh...”
I always thought that, when leaving some part of a quote out, you put parentheses around the ellipse (either () or []). Doesn't that make it clearer, especially if you then put a full stop right after the ellipse and end up with 4 points in a row?
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- Noah Boyer
  Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to Noah Boyer's post “I have seen some texts us...”
  I have seen some texts use [...], but from what I have been taught, you can just use the ellipse without anything extra.
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Sanjana
Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to Sanjana's post “If you end your sentence ...”
If you end your sentence with an ellipsis, how do you know if the period is part of the ellipsis or if it's the period?
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- Aman Chaudhary
  Posted 5 years ago. Direct link to Aman Chaudhary's post “yeah! ... is an ellipses ...”
  yeah! ... is an ellipses where as . is a period.
  Comment on Aman Chaudhary's post “yeah! ... is an ellipses ...”
  (9 votes)
ʜᴀᴢɪǫ ᴍᴜʜᴀᴍᴍᴀᴅ
Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to ʜᴀᴢɪǫ ᴍᴜʜᴀᴍᴍᴀᴅ's post “Can i start a sentence wi...”
Can i start a sentence with ellipses ?
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(18 votes)
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- melania.mihalcea
  Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to melania.mihalcea's post “Yes you can, depending on...”
  Yes you can, depending on the context. Generally, having ellipses at the beginning of a sentence shows a continuation of speech. For example: ...So that's how I met your mother. This would make sense only if you gave that information before. It can also be used when writing dialogue when someone stops mid-sentence, and continues from there. Beware, though, that ellipses also mean a pause in speech. In my previous example, it would work just fine without the ellipses in the beginning. E.g: So that's how I met your mother. Attention, ellipses in the beginning of a sentence are quite informal! If you are writing an essay, I'd suggest not to use it!
  Comment on melania.mihalcea's post “Yes you can, depending on...”
  (18 votes)
Sergei Ternovykh
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Sergei Ternovykh's post “If I change deleted part ...”
If I change deleted part of a quote, should I add a space before ellipses? And is it needed at all to add spaces after and (sometimes) before ellipses? After I knew about dashes, I'm now not sure... :)
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(10 votes)
Answer
- trek
  Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to trek's post “Editing a direct quotatio...”
  Editing a direct quotation can get a little tricky. If you are only omitting something (like a name) you could use an ellipsis, but if you are editing it (such as inserting a person's name instead of a pronoun like he or she) generally you put the edit in square brackets [David].
  Comment on trek's post “Editing a direct quotatio...”
  (16 votes)
batman
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to batman's post “Does there necessarily ha...”
Does there necessarily have to be 3 periods to represent ellipses? Can there be more to indecate a really long pause?
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(8 votes)
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- Captain Cryptic
  Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Captain Cryptic's post “I suppose, but using more...”
  I suppose, but using more than 3 would probably be considered informal.
  Comment on Captain Cryptic's post “I suppose, but using more...”
  (14 votes)
Finn Ifversen
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Finn Ifversen's post “Would you be able to use ...”
Would you be able to use the ellipses for both purposes in one sentence? Like, if you were quoting someone, but the quote had a pause in it AND you took out a part. Like, say you were quoting some important person named Fred or something, and you said "I do declare... Life as we know it... will surely end." That would cause confusion, probably, so would you be able to use it this way?
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(5 votes)
Answer
- Courteney
  Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Courteney's post “I would agree that using ...”
  I would agree that using ellipses in this way may be confusing. It may be slightly less confusing if you were to put the set of ellipses denoting an elimination within brackets. For example: Fred said, "I do declare [...] Life as we know it ... will surely end." The first set of ellipses would then imply an elimination and the second a pause. This is merely a suggestion, since there is no formal rule that declares that you must put ellipses that denote elimination with these brackets. In some academic communities, it's preferred, but like I said, currently it's not something that you have to do.
  Comment on Courteney's post “I would agree that using ...”
  (12 votes)
Thomas
Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to Thomas's post “is the an ellipsis the th...”
is the an ellipsis the three dots people use when writing books to show time-passing/location-change. <--(or what is that called
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(6 votes)
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Pranesh Prakashbabu
Posted 3 years ago. Direct link to Pranesh Prakashbabu's post “on 0:06 David spelled Eli...”
on
0:06
David spelled Elipsis "Elipses" but on the Khan Academy Work page it is Spelled "Elipsis" CAn anyone see that as well?
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(6 votes)
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- famousguy786
  Posted 3 years ago. Direct link to famousguy786's post “Both are correct. 'Elipse...”
  Both are correct. 'Elipses' is the plural form of elipsis.
  Comment on famousguy786's post “Both are correct. 'Elipse...”
  (5 votes)
Green13staR
Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to Green13staR's post “i always thought it was ....”
i always thought it was ... not . . .
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- Green13staR
  Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to Green13staR's post “Thank you very much. I di...”
  Thank you very much. I did not think about the font difference.
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Astrellea
Posted 3 years ago. Direct link to Astrellea's post “Can't ellipses also have ...”
Can't ellipses also have four periods like this ....?
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- David Alexander
  Posted 3 years ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “Three dots comprise an el...”
  Three dots comprise an ellipsis (which has its own meaning and function). A fourth dot would be the period that finishes the sentence.
  Comment on David Alexander's post “Three dots comprise an el...”
  (4 votes)

Video transcript

- [Paige] Hello, grammarians. Hello, David. - [David] Hello. . . Paige. - [Paige] (chuckles) So in this video we're gonna talk about a piece of punctuation called the ellipsis or ellipses in the plural form as we have here. So, what is an ellipsis? - [David] So an ellipsis is a punctuation mark that is actually made up of three periods with spaces in between them, boop, boop, boop. And it has two main uses. - [Paige] Okay. - [David] Use number one. It indicates a pause in speech. So like when you said, "Hello, David." And I said, "Hello...Paige." - [Paige] Right, so that ellipsis in the middle shows that you're pausing when you're speaking. So like, there's a lot of reasons why you might pause in your speech, you might be hesitating or thinking or just whatever the case may be, you can use an ellipsis to show that you're pausing. - [David] Right. Uh, and usage number two for the ellipsis is that it shows that a portion of quoted material has been taken out. - [Paige] Why would you take some of a quote out? - [David] So we have here, Paige, you have chosen a quote from the renowned wizard and orator, Albus Dumbledore, and he says, "Words are, "in my not so humble opinion, "our most inexhaustible source of magic." If you wanted, you could kind of take out that aside, that, "in my not so humble opinion." - [Paige] Yeah, I don't have a lot of space on this screen, so I don't want to write that whole thing. - [David] Mm-hmm. - [Paige] Right. So I can say, "Words are, ellipsis, our most inexhaustible "source of magic." - [David] So, okay, so Paige, I have a question. - [Paige] Yeah. - [David] Why do we even need this? Why can't you just say, "Words are our most "inexhaustible source of magic"? - [Paige] That's a great question. So, if I quote someone and I just sort of willy-nilly take words out without indicating that I've taken some information out of the quote, I can make it seem like someone said something totally different to what they actually said, right? It can be so easy to misconstrue someone's actual words. So this shows that this isn't exactly what Albus Dumbledore said, but it's the point that I want to get across with my quote. Does that make sense? - [David] I think so. So you're saying that there's kind of like an ethics question here. - [Paige] Right. - [David] So how do we like accurately reproduce someone's words without misrepresenting them? - [Paige] Totally. - [David] So it shows that you have messed with it somehow. - [Paige] Yes, exactly. - [David] But that you're calling out the fact that you've cut out pieces, so that people don't necessarily get the wrong idea. - [Paige] Totally. - [David] But I think there is kind of an art to using ellipsis, right? - [Paige] Yeah, I agree. You know, you could use it in, you know, technically wherever you want when you're quoting someone if you wanna take something out. But if you use it over and over or in the wrong places, you can still misrepresent what a person was saying. - [David] If you wanted to, you could render that sentence, "Words are my opinion." - [Paige] Yeah. - [David] Right. - [David] If you didn't use ellipses, you could just render that however you please, because those were words that were said approximately in that order, right. - [Paige] Yeah, without ellipses or-- - [David] Without ellipses. - [Paige] Okay. - [David] You know, you could just be like, "Words are my opinion." - [Paige] Mm-hmm. - [David] And that's not, that's not exactly what Dumbledore said, right? - [Paige] Right. No, that's not what he was saying at all. Those are some of the words he said, but that's not the idea he was trying to get across. - [David] So you have this responsibility with ellipses to do the right thing, to really represent the way that somebody speaks accurately. - [Paige] Yeah, definitely. - [David] Let's talk about the end of someone's sentence and I want to indicate that at some point after I cut off the end of the sentence, the sentence ends. Where do I put that extra period or do I need an extra period? - [Paige] Right. Okay. - [David] So let's say our sentence is something like, "I like cheese, although I'm more partial "to a Wensleydale than I am to a cheddar or a Stilton." You might want to just be able to write that sentence as, I like cheese, ellipsis, period, right? - [Paige] Yeah. - [David] So we're still including the terminal punctuation in this sentence. - [Paige] Yes. - [David] To show that it ends after the ellipsis. - [Paige] Right, yeah. That ellipsis there is showing that stuff has been removed, right, from this quote, and then that final period is showing that it's the end of a sentence, just like it normally does. 'Cause like, the ellipsis, you know, looks just like three periods, but it is it's own thing, and doesn't stand in as a period. - [David] So that's what, so if we didn't have that final period, it would just sort of look like you were trailing off like there was a pause. I like cheese. - [Paige] Yeah, there would be no end to that sentence. - [David] Right. But those are the two functions of ellipses, then, is that it indicates a pause in speech, like, "Hello...Paige." Or it shows that a portion of quoted material has been taken out. - [Paige] Yeah. - [David] Like, "Words are...our most "inexhaustible source of magic." - [Paige] That was a great Dumbledore impression. - [Albus] Thank you, Paige. You can learn anything. - [Paige] Okay. - [Albus] Albus out. - [Paige] Paige out. - [David] Cool.