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How to Punctuate After an Ellipsis

An ellipsis (plural ellipses) is a punctuation mark used to indicate a gap or pause. In dialogue, it indicates a small space of silence in conversation. It most commonly indicates a gap in a quotation, where the author has omitted unimportant text. For instance, in the first sentence of this paragraph, an author might quote as follows: "an ellipsis ... is ... used to indicate a gap or pause." Punctuating after an ellipsis seems tricky, but is actually quite simple.

Instructions

    • 1

      Choose the section you want to omit and replace it with an ellipsis.

    • 2

      Check the relationship between the sections before and after the ellipsis. Does the gap cross the ends of any sentences?

    • 3

      Insert punctuation around the ellipsis according to the following rules:

      If the omission is in the middle of a sentence, as in the first paragraph of this article, no further punctuation is needed.

      If the quotation ends with the omitted end of a sentence, the ellipsis should be followed by a period. Using the first sentence of this step, a sample quotation might be: "Insert punctuation around the ellipsis ... ."

      If the omission begins directly after the end of a sentence, the period should be followed by an ellipsis. For instance, to return to the first paragraph of this article, a quotation might read "It most commonly indicates a gap in a quotation, where the author has omitted unimportant text. ... Punctuating after an ellipsis seems tricky but is actually quite simple."

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