ELLIPSIS
Ellipsis: leaving words out when the meaning is clear without them, or to avoid unnecessary
repetition.
1.
Replies:
·
‘What time’s dinner?’ – ‘At
six.’ (c/f: ‘Dinner is at six.’)
·
‘Who’s coming?’ – ‘ Kinga’
(c/f: ‘Kinga is coming.’)
2.
At the beginning of a sentence:
·
‘Been to any gips, lately?’
(c/f: Have you been … ?)
·
‘Don’t have a clue!’ (c/f:
‘I don’t have a clue.’)
3.
At the end of a noun phrase:
·
‘My computer’s not working.
Can I use your’s?’ (c/f: ‘Can I use your computer?’)
·
‘Which cakes do you like?’
– ‘Those’ (c/f: ‘Those cakes’)
4.
At the end of a verb phrase:
–
using auxiliary verbs on their own instead of full verbs, or with non-auxiliary
‘be’ and ‘have’
·
‘I said I would go, but I
didn’t.’ (c/f: ‘ … I didn’t go.’)
·
‘I was planning to visit Tomi,
but, in the end I didn’t.’ (c/f: ‘… didn’t visit Tomi.’)
·
‘I had a feeling he’d be late,
and he was.’ (c/f: … he was late.’)
·
‘They say they have no more
stock left, but I know they have.’ (c/f: … they have more stock left.’)
5.
Infinitives:
·
‘Are you going to Glastonbury
this year?’ – ‘I hope to.’ (c/f: ‘I hope to go to Glastonbury … ‘)
·
‘Have fun!’ – ‘I’ll try.’
(c/f: ‘I’ll try to have fun’)
6.
Question-word clauses:
·
‘I want to give her a present,
but I don’t know what.’ – (c/f: ‘ … I don’t know what to give her.’)
·
‘He wants to fix the toaster, but he doesn’t know how.’ (c/f:
‘ … he doesn’t know how to fix the toaster.’)
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