0

I'm curious how many period characters can be in a row in a valid sentence.

I acknowledge that there are different conventions for how to treat dots (e.g. treating an ellipsis as a single character or putting a space before and after an ellipsis), but for the purposes of this question, I think we should allow reasonable conventions that could be considered acceptable, even if they aren't perhaps recommended. I'm also fine ignoring whitespace.

Examples

  • Here's a sentence with one period.
  • This sentence combines two periods into one, according to some prof.
  • This sentence ends with an ellipsis....
  • This sentence also might make sense, according to Knowsalot et al.....

Clarification

Please read the question carefully and in its entirety before voting to close a question.

Some closed this question because they thought this question has an answer here: When "etc." is at the end of a phrase, do you place a period after it?. Those people have made unreasonable assumptions about what this question is asking.

For clarity: I am not asking whether or not the period following an abbreviation gets put at the end of a phrase. I am not asking about a period before or after an ellipsis. I am asking how many periods can be in a row for any reason. Clearly, those other questions are relevant to my question, but to answer my question, you'd need the answers to all of those kinds of questions and combine their answers to be able to answer this question.

jvriesem
  • 301
  • This sentence ends with an ellipsis.... But does it? Ellipses indicate that something has been left out. What is the missing word at the end of that sentence? – chasly - supports Monica Jun 23 '20 at 20:39
  • Punctuation rules often vary according to different style guides. Do you have a particular guide in mind, or do you want the maximum number across, say, widely used style guides? And by the way, punctuation is not a part of grammar. – Juhasz Jun 23 '20 at 20:39
  • İnfinittely menny becuz døts,,, let alone jots and tıttles,,,.,., hav nothing to doo with grammer > enny moar than speling duz:: – tchrist Jun 23 '20 at 20:53
  • @chaslyfromUK: All true, but the missing content is inconsequential to the question. The point is that by leaving it out, one can get more dots. – jvriesem Jun 24 '20 at 16:43
  • @Juhasz: I do not have a particular guide in mind. That's why I said that I'm fine allowing "reasonable punctuation conventions". Good point about punctuation not being part of grammar. – jvriesem Jun 24 '20 at 16:45
  • @tchrist: I apologize for confusing "grammar" and "punctuation". This is not my area of expertise and I was using the terms loosely. However, writing barely-legible gibberish is not helpful. I have updated my question with clarification, and await your "infinitely many" answer. – jvriesem Jun 24 '20 at 17:02

1 Answers1

0

Five?

The most I can get is five (the last example in the question), which has one period from an abbreviation ("et al."), three for an ellipsis ("..."), and one to close the sentence (".").

Some manuals would prefer that last sentence to be written as follows:

This sentence also might make sense, according to Knowsalot et al. ... .

Since you specify that you are ignoring whitespace, that's five dots.

Sure, this is bad form, but from what I've read and seen, it's okay to have a period from an abbreviation before an ellipsis (discussion), and it's okay to have an ellipsis at the end of a sentence followed by a period (source).

jvriesem
  • 301
  • ellipsis plus a period is a no-go, Houston. It's ellipsis OR period. – Lambie Jun 24 '20 at 17:01
  • @Lambie: That's not how I've learned it at all. Perhaps this is a regional difference, but there are many guides that use both. – jvriesem Jun 24 '20 at 17:04