Here's Why the Ellipsis Is So Terrifying When Texting... (2024)

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Here's Why the Ellipsis Is So Terrifying When Texting...? ›

At the end of a sentence, it can have a different feeling. Again, it can be used for trailing off on a thought. But ending a sentence with ellipses can also have a sort of ominous or passive-aggressive feel to it.

Ellipses, by contrast, can completely change the tone and meaning of what you write. And people who misuse them often don't realise what they're doing.

He said that when boomers were charged by text messagesor SMS, they developed the habit of utilising many ellipses. Boomers used ellipsesto divide their ideas apart so they could communicate more in a single text.

An ellipsis is a common response to a bad joke or pun.

It's like in real life when someone makes a bad joke and you just look at them blankly. The joke was too bad to even merit a proper response. It's not a negative reaction, just one that says, “There you go again, you goofball.”

On the other hand, Gen-Z, raised on the immediacy of text messages and social media, favours brevity and clarity. To them, the ellipsis can feel outdated and misinterpreted. Social media platforms like X, TikTok and Reddit have become battlegrounds for this punctuation war.

At the end of a sentence, it can have a different feeling. Again, it can be used for trailing off on a thought. But ending a sentence with ellipses can also have a sort of ominous or passive-aggressive feel to it.

Written communication is subject to interpretation. In a professional environment, you always want your message to be as clear as possible so everyone will get the message you want. Using ellipsis can be interpreted different ways and there is a high risk one will consider this rude.

In order to say more in just one text, boomers would use “…” to separate their thoughts. Whereas Gen Z does not have any such limitation and therefore they freely shoot multiple texts, rarely punctuating their thoughts with ellipses.

The ellipsis, a row of three dots, stands for an omitted section of text. But much can be conveyed by omission. It asks the receiver of the message to fill in the text, and in that way is very coy and potentially flirty.

Ellipsis points are periods in groups of usually three, or sometimes four. They signal either that something has been omitted from quoted text, or that a speaker or writer has paused or trailed off in speech or thought. That's the basics. Now we'll dig in to how they're used.

Are three dots passive-aggressive? ›

People ending their sentences in ellipses are the true passive aggressive ones..... | Hacker News.

He's flirting.

Ellipses are an effective way to let the person you're speaking with fill in the blank. If a guy who's chatting you up follows a text like “I've been thinking about you…” with those 3 tiny dots, he's inviting you to use your imagination to figure out what exactly he's thinking about you.

So it means "and so forth" or "and other things". Other use is the suspension of a part of a text, or a paragraph, or a phrase or a part of a word because it is obvious, or unnecessary, or implied. For instance, sometimes the ellipsis is used to avoid the complete use of expletives.

It's great for omitting words and phrases and indicating pauses and unfinished thoughts.

Take care to preserve the original meaning of the quote. When removing words at the beginning or end of a quote, you do not need to provide an ellipsis--only use when omitting words from the middle of a quoted sentence.

Aposiopesis is the use of an ellipsis to trail off into silence—for example: "But I thought he was..." When placed at the end of a sentence, an ellipsis may be used to suggest melancholy or longing.

When used in casual conversation, ellipses connote hesitation, confusion, and apathy — they're the most passive-aggressive of all the punctuation marks.

The ellipsis, a row of three dots, stands for an omitted section of text. But much can be conveyed by omission. It asks the receiver of the message to fill in the text, and in that way is very coy and potentially flirty.