An ellipsis, you mean?[/quote]

well, no, because:

World English Dictionary
ellipsis (??l?ps?s)
…
2. printing a sequence of three dots (…) indicating an omission in text

…hence more than 3 (as seen in several places on this thread) is unnecessary.

But it sounds **** when people start a sentence with it verbally.

^^This.

I always think it makes the person saying/writing it seem a bit weak, as if they are not entirely confident of what they are saying and are buying time.

I don’t think folks are bothered.

No at the end is a tidy way of expressing doubt at you own assertion. Efficiency and expressiveness in language is good.

For rhetorical questions, I’m inclined to use “?!”. The cedilla was mooted for this but it looks a bit too foreign.

But there should be more umlauts in English!

But there should be more umlauts in English!

There’s Mötley Crüe and Mötörhead, which ought to be more than enough, no?

I’d be taking a hard look at my life if this kind of thing made me start a thread on STW.

And yet dd felt the the need to click on it and post twice?

By our actions we are known. 😕

Alors, I blame the French.