How to use the ellipsis ?

The ellipsis (…), sometimes called the suspension or omission marks, has three uses:

  • to show that some material has been omitted from a direct quotation [One of Churchill’s most famous speeches declaimed: “We shall shall fight them on the beaches … We shall never surrender”.]
  • to indicate suspense [The winner is …]
  • to show that a sentence has been left unfinished because it has simply trailed off [Watch this space …]

Note: Technically there should be three dots in an ellipsis, but I would accept two at the beginning of a piece and four at the end.

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