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Punctuation
(sh.itjust.works)
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this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2025
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I heard the kids are putting a space before the exclamation mark to tone down its immediacy:
See you there !
versus
See you there!
I'm old. I guess it works, but then I'm of the "ellipsis isn't necessarily ominous" generation, so what I think might be completely wrong...
That's interesting. Adding a space before the exclamation mark would just make me think it's a typo and not an intentional punctuation choice.
And the the use of the ellipsis is something I've recently seen in some work correspondence, and to me it came off as sarcastic, not ominous. Which was strange as the sender is usually very polite. So this makes a lot more sense if it's a generational thing.
I still don't understand it though. If not sarcasm, ominous ending, or an interruption, what does an ellipsis signify and why not just use a period?
It mean an incomplete thought or phrase, in some situation it mean the lack of words, i should make some examples maybe
"They can be used like...
...this"
"I don't really understand... why you did this?" This example show the lack of words for something
It can also mean disappointment/sadness
"I though i was gonna win..."
These are good examples. I suppose I should have clarified that I'm used to seeing ellipsis in literature, but not in interpersonal communication.
I suppose that's what threw me off. It just doesn't feel like a natural way to communicate.
I used to use ellipsis a lot and I guess I used it as a lead in from thought to thought and avoid making a new paragraph or something. Now when I see people overly use it, it's really annoying and I cringe knowing I probably was no better.
It's funny because even back then there was a younger guy I knew on Steam. I would give him a lot of flak for using like a comma. A single sentence or thought might be 7 or 8 lines for no reason, causing so many notification sounds that I'd get pissed at him before even reading the message (version 2 of the Steam message sounds were highly grating to me and I couldn't tolerate them if it was continuous, probably misophonia before I knew it existed). I was pretty persistent in telling him to finish his thoughts in a single line. Years later he actually thanked me because he realized I wasn't the only one who hated talking to him and couldn't make meaningful connections online with friends. I just hope I wasn't too much of a dick in telling him to correct it.
Anymore, I try to be as proper in punctuation as I can be. I'm sure when people see the ending period of a casual sentence in a text, they might read too much into it at first until they get used to me.
The space before the ! Is a habit i picked up from auto correct. When i was adopting auto correct, my phone would only recognize . And space as a trigger for some reason (i grew up on t9 with no chat history, so i was there from the beginning). So i would hit space, then ! So I didn't have to fix the word. Just left the space in. Now its just habit on my phone to space before i !
It signifies an incomplete thought or idea…
… like this.
That's just french
UHG not that
Almost rather someone do a bad smiley (you know what I mean :)
This mustn't register on an emotional level.
It's interesting to me that people put so much effort into creating rules around what subtle punctuation differences mean when there's a billion reasons not to assume we know what any of it means. Typos, being in a hurry, being a different person with different opinions... Basically texting is like 50% at best for communicating emotions even if we don't make these random assumptions.
I think partly it’s the same thing as slang - it identifies you as part of a group and, more specifically, not the same as those boring oldies. Only boring oldies finish texts with a full-stop !
Tone is very hard to convey through text. I think rules like these can be helpful to get more information across without having to type more words.
I mean, that's exactly my point. Unless you can know people are paying full attention, didn't make a mistake, and also know/subscribe to the exact same rules, then the potential for misunderstanding is increased not decreased.
It's not fundamentally different to body language or tone in person. How do we know what a gesture is supposed to convey? Everyone needs to be on the same page, right?
And yet, it seems to work. Just as phone texts seem to work. Humans are excellent at language, we pick these things up subconsciously and through exposure over time to people's/the same person's texts
Body language has evolved for millions of years. Undoubtedly from before we were human. Texting has existed for what, 25?
And I think the existence of this post in the first place tells us it very often doesn't work.
If you want things to move in that direction, it takes momentum. If nobody does it for fear of confusion, then it will never change. So I say we make that little effort, and explain ourselves if need be.
I say let's embrace trying to be clear by using more words, not less. Within reason anyhow.
Using more words to describe emotional content is not really how humans use language, but you do have the next best thing, which are tone indicators
Wildly tapping our thumbs on a piece of glass is not how humans express emotion. Since it's literally impossible to truly convey emotions in characters anyhow, I'm just advocating for attempting to be expressive in a way that more people can understand. Vs confusing your audience because you didn't consider them and then judging them for it.
why would you post something so ominous
The ellipsis being offensive is rough. For me, it conveys giving space to the reader. It’s polite.
It's indecisive. Make a decision and stick with it, don't force it onto the reader.
My boomer mom does both of these things