The ellipsis

A small lesson in punctuation, which you may or may not need.

(Probably not. No one really needs this, really.)

This symbol, ... , is an ellipsis. Please note that, although the symbol appears to be three periods, it is, in fact, one symbol. Most people, rather than figuring out how to place an ellipsis with their keyboards, will simply type a number of periods. And that's fine — it's a lot easier.

However, the number of periods people type ... varies considerably.

I've seen as few as two — if it were only one, it would just be a period — and as many as dozens.

Seriously. Several lines of periods, spanning a couple of pages.

But there are only three periods in an ellipsis.

The sort of exception to this is what's referred to as the terminal ellipsis. A terminal ellipsis is when you use an ellipsis right at the end of a sentence, and them follow that ellipsis with a single period. So, it looks like four periods, and it may functionally be four periods, but from a punctuation standpoint, it's an ellipsis followed by a period.

The terminal ellipsis can also be used with the other sentence-ending marks, question and exclamation, but the structure is the same —one ellipsis (or three periods, if you must) and one mark.

Thank you for attending my most recent commission of pedantry. Now, good day, sir —I said good day!