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Ellipsis ... going crazy.

Can someone help me, please? It's ellipsis, it's driving me up the wall. On the face of it, it should be so easy as it just involves three dots here and, occasionally, four dots there. But should their be spaces either side of the dots or not? It seems as though there is no universal rule for this seeming contradiction.

So which of these are correct and which ones are incorrect?

Joe hesitated. 'The cat sat on ... the mat,' he said.
Joe hesitated. 'The cat sat on...the mat,' he said.

Joe hesitated. 'The cat sat on the mat.... At least I think it did,' he said.
Joe hesitated. 'The cat sat on the mat....At least I think it did, he said.

If someone could put me out of my misery I'd be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Re: Ellipsis ... going crazy.

In my experience it's: Abc ... xyz. Three dots with a single character space at each end, followed by an initial lower-case letter (upper case and four dots with new sentence, and upper case with a proper noun). The three dots are called "ellipsis points".


PaulM

Re: Ellipsis ... going crazy.

Thanks, Paul.

Re: Ellipsis ... going crazy.

In your sentence, there is no ellipsis! Rather, you are wishing to indicate a pause in speaking, whether to indicate a pause as the speaker chooses his next words carefully; or that he has had second thoughts about what he has just said.
Indicate this with 5 or 6 dots:

Joe hesitated. 'The cat sat on…...the mat,' he said.

With ellipsis, there are two forms:
(i) word/s omitted from within the one sentence.

"The cat purred, moved closer to the fire and sat on the mat."
becomes
"The cat…sat on the mat."
Note the format: three dots (no space either side)

(ii) words are omitted between sentences.

“I never expected this! Never in a million years! I can’t believe that I managed to escape with my life. Carlton almost got bitten, right after the thing started turning purple. We’re lucky to be alive.”

A journalist, with precious type space available, cuts it down to this:
“I never expected this! … We’re lucky to be alive.”
Note the format: space three dots space

Re: Ellipsis ... going crazy.

Claire
In your sentence, there is no ellipsis! Rather, you are wishing to indicate a pause in speaking, whether to indicate a pause as the speaker chooses his next words carefully; or that he has had second thoughts about what he has just said.
Indicate this with 5 or 6 dots
No! Just three with a space at each end.

You can't know that. For all you know, the five words "the tatty frayed part of" may have been ellipted:

Thus, "the cat sat on the tatty frayed part of the mat" becomes:

"The cat sat on ... the mat."


Indicate this with 5 or 6 dots
No! Just three with a space at each end.

In any case, an ellipsis can also indicate hesitation, though in this case the punctuation is more accurately described as suspension points:

"I wasn’t really ... well, what I mean ... see, the thing is ... I didn’t mean it".


With ellipsis, there are two forms:
(i) word/s omitted from within the one sentence.

"The cat purred, moved closer to the fire and sat on the mat."
becomes
"The cat…sat on the mat."
Note the format: three dots (no space either side)

No! The ellipsis consists of three evenly spaced dots (periods) with spaces between the ellipsis and surrounding letters or other marks:

"The cat ... sat on the mat".
"He goes on to say, 'But Johnson ... was willing to accept a fee for his work."

That second example is from the finest work on English grammar available today.


(ii) words are omitted between sentences.

“I never expected this! Never in a million years! I can’t believe that I managed to escape with my life. Carlton almost got bitten, right after the thing started turning purple. We’re lucky to be alive.”

A journalist, with precious type space available, cuts it down to this:
“I never expected this! … We’re lucky to be alive.”

Note the format: space three dots space.
Whoopee, you got that one right.

PaulM

Re: Ellipsis ... going crazy.

I come back to the forum to be greeted by your emotional outbursts to my contributions.

Do you believe that YOU are the authority in this forum? I ask, because such emotional outbursts smack of a petty dictator who sees himself in some way challenged.

Just one comment:
The cliché when referring to texts for teaching children how to read is the expression "the cat sat on the mat', similar to the cliché when referring to learning French: ' The pen of my aunt'.

You seem to wish, for convenience of your challenge, to include a phrase referring to the state of the carpet as 'tatty'.

You DO seem to wish to change the English language, when the object of a forum such as this is to help non-native speakers learn it through the sharing of information and opinions- not just yours!

Re: Ellipsis ... going crazy.