People...you know the type... That use....all...the...sodding....time.

[FrustratedSycamoreBonks]

Aaaaahhh.... it makes me... want to.... scream.... what... I wonder.... is... the actual point?

I have no idea why people do it, or what effect they are trying to achieve. Am I missing something or I'd it a blatant misuse of a full stop?
I understand the use when you occasionally want to lead the reader on, and make them wait, for example

"I've just seen..... a flying pig"

But what is the use at the end, and even in the middle of, a normal sentence.

[OvO]

I don't belong in this section but I had to post as I hate it too. It's fine used properly. Or even unproperly but just occasionally. It's when it's used constantly that I hate it.

I see it in the same way as I see text speak used on a forum. If you can't be arsed to type in a way that makes it easily read then I can't be arsed to read it. And using ... 20 times in one paragraph makes it a chuffing chore! If someone paused and trailed off that much in RL I'd tell them to see a doctor.

[Mysexypants]

What I find even more frustrating is people who use no punctuation whatsoever. I spend the entire time trying to decipher their messages! A friend posted this message a few days ago:

back from prague late last nite had a fab few days in london for the day home later xx

I spent ages wondering why they had had a great few days in London when they were going to Prague before realising they were telling me they had a great few days in Prague, and were spending the day in London before returning home.

So many people are now posting like this & I don't understand why?

[Lougle]

A comma is a short pause in breath, or a clause change.

A full-stop signifies the end of a sentence and is indicated by a longer pause in breath.

Ellipses are the '...' in question. They are used, effectively, when the poster is uncertain of their statement, questioning the use of a word, or leaving words unspoken for the reader to imagine:

"I felt that he was cold, his eyes somehow...unfeeling....unreachable." Indicates that the writer is struggling to express the quality of the feeling that the subject's eyes gave him/her.

"Would you call it....turquoise?" The writer here has pondered, and come up with a possible solution.

"If you think you're getting away with that...." Indicates that there is an unspoken message.

Elisions are the omission of letters/sounds from a word to make pronounciation easier.

I like ellipses. In the right context, used judiciously.

What I hate is when people use them to drip feed information, and elicit a response from you. I know a man that does this. We play a live online game, where a group of us share a 'guild' and we can chat while we play. Conversations involving this man often start like this:

"How are you, x?"

"Oh, I'm not directly 'fine'....."

"Oh dear, what's the matter?"

"Well, life isn't exactly treating me 'well' lately......."

"Sorry to hear that."

"I thought I had a good car........"

Just spit it out man!!!!!

[MaryZcary]

See, it's all Mumsnet's fault for changing the meaning of from [ponders] to [sceptical].

In the old days you could ponder all over the place, now if you pause for thought you have to .... instead.

Though ds uses it to finish essays if he has got to the end of the specified number of lines and hasn't killed off his characters yet (God forbid he should write a single word more than the teacher has suggested ...).

[ProcrastinatingPanda]

What drives me crazy is seeing ..............

It's only supposed to be 3 little dots, not bloody twenty...

[TheLaineyWayIsEssex]

I do like a good en dash instead of a comma - it seems a little stronger.

[TheLaineyWayIsEssex]

I like to think the ellipsis adds an air of mystery to a sentence:
Now I am off to bed ...

[pictish]

Oh and I use commas to signify pauses as well. I use both.

[pictish]

I do this, and I do it when I would pause in my speech. I write as I talk so that's what you get.

I don't care who finds it annoying. I'll keep on doing it, as that is what feels natural to me.

[SummerRain]

Mittens.... Were I writing in a formal style that's exactly what I'd do, however the fact is I'm not. I'm writing in a conversational style suited to an internet forum

[SauvignonBlanche]

Ellipses are these, an elision is this.

[aquavit]

good god, you must be right. I have gone completely mad

as you were ...

[insancerre]

I find myself increasingly using - to punctuate for everything- don't know why- but I do- saves me using more than one finger and capital letters

[WMittens]

aquavit

"Ellipses are brackets () fgs"

Parentheses are brackets. Ellipses are "..."

[WMittens]

SummerRain

'My son is behaving badly today... I wonder is it just the age he's at?'

should be:

'My son is behaving badly today; I wonder is it just the age he's at?'

If I was being really pedantic:

'My son is behaving badly today; I wonder: "is it just the age he's at?"

[aquavit]

The dots indicate omitted material. That's why they are called elisions. They create suspense (especially at the end of a sentence) because they imply that something hasn't (yet) been said.

They are also commonly used to indicate a pause. Overuse in this way is very irritating.

Ellipses are brackets () fgs

[SummerRain]

A comma is a short pause in a sentence, or two commas to contain a slightly separate thought which is relevant to the meaning of the sentance. The ellipses are for a longer pause or for an altogether different thought extrapolated from my original idea.

'My son, who is 5, is behaving very badly today'

'My son is behaving badly today... I wonder is it just the age he's at?'

Sorry, not the best example but I haven't had my morning cuppa yet!

[HappyTurquoise]

The dots are for when I am thinking something that cannot be said (because it would offend and the thread would go off at a tangent, or because I want the OP to be led to their own conclusions, or because I'm brainstorming lots of ideas and don't have words for the in between thoughts, or because I am hungover and hard of thinking.)

[BelfastBloke]

Looks like most of us pedants use it ...

and many more of us don't mind it ...

It has the Mumsnet Pendandts Seal of Approval!

[HappyTurquoise]

Guilty as charged M'lud...

[JudeFawley]

I have a friend who sends me long e-mails.

They consist entirely of caps, dots and exclamation marks.

THEY LOOK.....LIKE THIS!!!!!!!

Most annoying.

[picnicbasketcase]

The occasional one I don't mind, it's the posts where there is no other punctuation that get on my tits.

[WMittens]

I do it. I write like I speak, so the dots are where I'm pausing.

We have commas to signify pauses.

they are elisions, not ellipses

From wiki: "Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce.

In Native English, elision comes naturally, and it is often described as "slurred" or "muted." Often, elision is deliberate. It is a common misconception that contractions automatically qualify as elided words, which comes from slack definitions. Not all elided words are contractions and not all contractions are elided words (for example, 'going to' -> gonna: an elision that is not a contraction; 'can not' cannot: a contraction that is not an elision)."

"..." is nothing to do with elisions

[Ponders]

goodness, ISK, twins must mess with your head much more than singletons

[FrustratedSycamoreBonks]

ISK your use is acceptable. how pregnant were you?