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What does ... Mean to you?

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by genuinemommy, Jul 8, 2022.

  1. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    ...

    In different contexts it can mean different things.

    Let's list all of them here.
    Any way you have seen this used, any context.

    All answers welcome.

    Motivation:
    Someone asked me recently if I thought they were stupid because I used ... In a text based conversation with them.
    I was so confused. I explained that I thought the opposite, that they didn't need any extra details I could provide on that topic so I was moving on to another.

    They had never seen ... used in any official way. They had only seen it in gaming contexts where apparently it meant in his spheres: "You did something stupid."

    Let's celebrate the many ways to use, misuse, and abuse ellipses.
     
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  2. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    I'm over 50, and not a gamer, and I use it like you do.
    I'll also use it to indicate a pause in written conversation.
    But I've never known it to imply I'm calling's someone stupid.
     
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  3. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    If you've seen my posts anywhere, I use them often.
    Why?

    For me, it's both a longer pause than "," or an emphasis between ideas that you want your reader to focus on...or to emphasize a point.
    It's almost the same reason that I use line breaks to separate out my sentences.

    There's no scoring system for writing. We're not writing a friggin' book or news article.

    You don't have to worry about wasting paper anymore.
    And syntax & grammar is more of an art form, to translate over what you're trying to get across...and tones, infections, etc that we use in spoken words.

    My focus is to be clear and get things across to my audience. Plus, it's a way for me to do flow of conversation from my brain.

    Frankly, if it's a post and not a book or article, I get lost in what someone is saying...the words blur together. Ideas get missed.
    And I want to give what they're saying due respect, but my eyes & brain just don't want to absorb it, if it's in one big chunk.

    IMHO, anyone who complains, Fuck 'em.

    It's simply knowing your audience and how YOU want to converse.
    If you feel it's not working, you tweak it. As long as the person reading "gets" what you're saying.

    Most rules were made by people who don't much life anyway. :rolleyes:
    There are more important things to worry about...

    ** funny, some have literally complained or mocked my posts look like poetry. (not my intent)
    Again...fuck'em. Don't like it, don't read it. Besides, most like what I have to say...for some reason. ;)
     
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  4. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    I use ... to indicate a dramatic or extended pause.
     
  5. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    Screenshot_20220710-143713.png
     
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  6. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Interpretation of ... could depend on the tone of what was written.

    Examples:

    I was very disappointed with your...presentation.

    The crowd was absolutely mezermized. How did you come up with such an outside-of-the-box...presentation?
     
  7. Lindy

    Lindy Moderator Staff Member

    Location:
    Nebraska
    In formal writing (according to some stylebook, somewhere) they indicate that part of a quotation has been left out, usually for the sake of brevity. To be grammatically correct an ellipsis should have a space between the dots.:cool:

    Informally, I use them to indicate a pause. The same way I would pause briefly in conversation while I search my memory banks for the word I want. Or, perhaps, merely for effect.;):rolleyes:

    ... is Morse code for "s" Does anyone here speak Morse?

    First, I thought that pretty much "anything goes" when it comes to texts.:rolleyes:
    Perhaps ... indicating stupid is some online convention as ALL CAPS indicates YELLING.
     
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  8. pig

    pig Slightly Tilted Donor

    If I'm using text as a substitute for oral communication, it just indicates a pause. I guess it indicates I took a second to think about what comes next.

    I'm formal writing I rarely use them.
     
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  9. Lindy

    Lindy Moderator Staff Member

    Location:
    Nebraska
    In formal writing only acceptable when chopping wordy irrelevancies from a quotation.
    Otherwise it would seem to me that I was dithering and admitting to not being in command of what I'm writing.
    In my (long suppressed) dissertation I'll use space dash space then parentheses when I move from original Italian or French to English. I don't see that in any stylebook but my committee has not seen fit to correct me.
     
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  10. boink

    boink Slightly Tilted

    Location:
    Seattle
    I only use an ellipse when drawing perspective or oval shaped objects...

    I use ... To replicate the pace of my actual speaking, so the reading of a sentence is similar to an in person conversation.
     
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  11. DamnitAll

    DamnitAll Wait... what? Donor

    Location:
    Central MD
    There’s a guy I work with who routinely sprinkles four to six dots at a time between phrases in his emails. His title is “Director of IT Innovation,” and somehow, to me, the title and the practice seem to go hand in hand.

    I’d love to see a companion thread or threads to this one exploring the use, or misuse, of em dashes and semicolons (paging @Baraka_Guru), but I’m too lazy/busy to start it myself, so…
     
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  12. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    @DamnitAll Don't get me started! :eek:

    I will tell you right here that my least favourite punctuation violations are as follows:
    1. A missing direct address comma
    2. A comma splice where one could have used a perfectly cromulent semicolon to avoid it
    3. People whose surname ends in Z or S who don't know how to use the possessive form of it or pluralize it
    The last one gets to me in large part because my sister's family has one such name, and I've never corrected them (or my other siblings) on it. So I've had to abide such phrasing as (note: not her real name) "You are invited to the Bartz's place" (which should be "the Bartzes' place").

    I did have a talk about this with my neighbour-friends, where one of them has a name ending in S. This isn't their name, but it went something like this:
    • You are "the Joneses," not "the Jones'," and you invite us over to "the Joneses' place."
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2025
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  13. DamnitAll

    DamnitAll Wait... what? Donor

    Location:
    Central MD
    I knew we could count on you!
     
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  14. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    So... American history... Farmer Shays led a rebellion over the Articles of Confederation. The history books say Shays's rebellion. This bothers me. It is nice to see that there is a reason why it looked wrong to me.
     
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  15. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    If there is just one Farmer Shays, then either "Shays' rebellion" or "Shays's rebellion" works. (I no longer support the added S in this case, but it's not wrong.)
     
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  16. Terrell

    Terrell Vertical

    I think of a pause or an unfinished thought. I'm a gamer, but I mostly play single-player games so I haven't seen it in that context. As for age I'm an old speed limit sign.
     
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  17. Lucidwayfarer

    Lucidwayfarer PlantGuru Donor

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    "Eh, it’s kind of like… well, you know… that thing where you sort of do know, but also don’t? Like, it’s right there, but also just out of reach? Yeah… that."
     
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