5 exercises — avoiding repetition with ellipsis and pro-verb substitution in technical conversations and docs.
0 / 20 completed
1 / 20
Two developers are reviewing options. Dev A: "Should we use PostgreSQL or MySQL?" Dev B: "I prefer PostgreSQL, but either _____ work." Which word completes the substitution correctly?
"Either would do" uses substitution — "do" replaces the verb phrase "work" from the previous sentence, avoiding direct repetition. This is natural in spoken and written English: "Either would work" → "Either would do." In British English, "do" is a common pro-verb (a verb that substitutes for another verb phrase). Compare: "Can we refactor this?" / "We could do." Ellipsis (omitting words) and substitution (replacing words with "do", "so", "one") keep technical conversations concise without being ambiguous. Option B is also grammatically valid ("either would work") but uses direct repetition, not substitution.
2 / 20
A design doc says: "The auth module was rewritten in Go. The payment module was _____ in Go." Which ellipsis makes this most concise without losing clarity?
"also rewritten" uses ellipsis — the understood element "in Go" is omitted because it was just established. The result is: "The payment module was also rewritten [in Go]." The omitted part is recoverable from context, which is the key condition for ellipsis. "Too" alone (option C) would require the whole predicate to be implied ("was also rewritten in Go, too") and is stylistically weak. "Also rewritten in Go" (option A) is repetitive — exactly what ellipsis avoids. Ellipsis is especially effective in technical lists and comparisons where the same condition applies repeatedly.
3 / 20
A colleague asks: "Have you reviewed the API spec?" You have. Which response uses ellipsis most naturally?
"Yes, I have." is the classic example of auxiliary ellipsis. The main verb "reviewed the API spec" is omitted because the listener can recover it from the question. This is the standard pattern in English question-response pairs: "Have you deployed it?" / "I have." — "Did you push the fix?" / "I did." — "Can you take the on-call shift?" / "I can." Option D ("I did so") uses substitution ("so" = "reviewed the API spec") — also grammatically correct but slightly more formal. Option A and B are full repetitions — grammatically fine but stylistically heavy in conversation.
4 / 20
In a sprint retrospective note: "The CI pipeline failed twice in sprint 22, and it _____ in sprint 23 as well." Which substitution avoids repeating "failed twice"?
"did so" is the correct pro-verb substitution. "So" here substitutes for the verb phrase "fail twice" — "it did so" = "it failed twice." This is formal and precise: "The server crashed at 3am and did so again at 6am", "The tests passed locally and did so in CI too." "Did it" (option B) would mean something different — "it" would refer to a specific object, not the predicate. "Was so" is not idiomatic. "Did so" is particularly useful in technical writing (reports, post-mortems) where you need to reference a previously described event without full repetition.
5 / 20
An engineer writes: "We need to update the staging config and the production config." Which version uses ellipsis to reduce the repetition?
"the staging and production configs" uses noun-phrase ellipsis — "config" appears once as a plural instead of being repeated. The singular "config" from each phrase is merged into one shared plural. This is the most common form of ellipsis in technical writing: "the read and write replicas", "the development and production environments", "the frontend and backend services." Option B is a full repetition of the entire clause. Option C uses "both of the configs" which loses the specific staging/production distinction. Option D adds "also" without removing the repetition. Noun-phrase ellipsis creates tighter, more readable technical prose.
6 / 20
Dev A: 'We're seeing high latency with the new caching layer. It's impacting user experience.'
Dev B: 'That's concerning. Let's investigate further. We should check if the database connection pool is properly configured, or if there are any bottlenecks in the network…' Which word best completes Dev B's thought?
'Overloaded' is the most appropriate substitution here because Dev B is describing a performance issue. 'Exhausted,' 'optimized,' and 'saturated' all relate to resource management in different contexts that don't directly address high latency. The phrase 'overloaded' suggests an imbalance between demand and capacity, mirroring the problem being described.
7 / 20
Slack message from Sarah (Frontend): 'The new UI component is causing a memory leak. We need to address it ASAP.'
Response from Mark (Backend): 'Okay, we'll look into it. It might be related to how the data is being serialized…' Which ellipsis best completes Mark's message?
'Serialized' is the correct substitution because Mark is likely referring to how the UI component's data is being handled. The process of converting complex data structures into a stream of bytes for transmission or storage is known as serialization. The other options are related to data validation, aggregation, and de-serialization, which aren't directly relevant to the memory leak scenario.
8 / 20
PR description for a code change: 'Implemented new error handling. This should prevent crashes when invalid input is received.'
Which ellipsis best completes the description to provide more detail without adding unnecessary length?
'Handled' is the most suitable substitution because it concisely describes what the new error handling does. While 'validated,' 'logged,' and 'resolved' are related concepts, 'handled' directly addresses the core purpose of mitigating errors. A PR description should focus on *what* the code does, not a detailed explanation of every step.
9 / 20
Standup update from David (DevOps): 'The deployment pipeline failed again. It kept rolling back after the code merge.'
Which ellipsis best completes David's statement to explain the cause of the failure?
'Reverted' is the most precise choice here. The statement indicates a rollback, meaning the deployment process automatically returned to a previous version after a merge. The other options – 'integrated,' 'validated,' and 'triggered' – are related concepts but don't directly explain why the pipeline was rolling back.
10 / 20
Code review comment from Emily (Senior Engineer): 'The function is performing a lot of string manipulation. It could be optimized for performance.'
Which ellipsis best completes the comment to suggest a specific improvement?
'Extracted' is the most appropriate substitution. Suggesting that the function's string manipulation logic should be separated into a dedicated, reusable component (an 'extracted' function) is a common and effective optimization strategy for improving performance and maintainability. The other options relate to different stages of the development process but don't directly address the issue of excessive string manipulation.
11 / 20
Dev A: 'We're seeing high latency with the new caching layer. It's impacting user experience.'
Dev B: 'That's concerning. Let's investigate further. We should check if the database connection pool is properly configured, or if there are any bottlenecks in the network…' Which word best completes Dev B's thought?
'Overloaded' is the most appropriate substitution here because Dev B is describing a performance issue. 'Exhausted,' 'optimized,' and 'saturated' all relate to resource management in different contexts that don't directly address high latency. The phrase 'overloaded' suggests an imbalance between demand and capacity, mirroring the problem being described.
12 / 20
Slack message from Sarah (Frontend): 'The new UI component is causing a memory leak. We need to address it ASAP.'
Response from Mark (Backend): 'Okay, we'll look into it. It might be related to how the data is being serialized…' Which ellipsis best completes Mark's message?
'Serialized' is the correct substitution because Mark is likely referring to how the UI component's data is being handled. The process of converting complex data structures into a stream of bytes for transmission or storage is known as serialization. The other options are related to data validation, aggregation, and de-serialization, which aren't directly relevant to the memory leak scenario.
13 / 20
PR description for a code change: 'Implemented new error handling. This should prevent crashes when invalid input is received.'
Which ellipsis best completes the description to provide more detail without adding unnecessary length?
'Handled' is the most suitable substitution because it concisely describes what the new error handling does. While 'validated,' 'logged,' and 'resolved' are related concepts, 'handled' directly addresses the core purpose of mitigating errors. A PR description should focus on *what* the code does, not a detailed explanation of every step.
14 / 20
Standup update from David (DevOps): 'The deployment pipeline failed again. It kept rolling back after the code merge.'
Which ellipsis best completes David's statement to explain the cause of the failure?
'Reverted' is the most precise choice here. The statement indicates a rollback, meaning the deployment process automatically returned to a previous version after a merge. The other options – 'integrated,' 'validated,' and 'triggered' – are related concepts but don't directly explain why the pipeline was rolling back.
15 / 20
Code review comment from Emily (Senior Engineer): 'The function is performing a lot of string manipulation. It could be optimized for performance.'
Which ellipsis best completes the comment to suggest a specific improvement?
'Extracted' is the most appropriate substitution. Suggesting that the function's string manipulation logic should be separated into a dedicated, reusable component (an 'extracted' function) is a common and effective optimization strategy for improving performance and maintainability. The other options relate to different stages of the development process but don't directly address the issue of excessive string manipulation.
16 / 20
Dev A: 'We're seeing high latency with the new caching layer. It's impacting user experience.'
Dev B: 'That's concerning. Let's investigate further. We should check if the database connection pool is properly configured, or if there are any bottlenecks in the network…' Which word best completes Dev B's thought?
'Overloaded' is the most appropriate substitution here because Dev B is describing a performance issue. 'Exhausted,' 'optimized,' and 'saturated' all relate to resource management in different contexts that don't directly address high latency. The phrase 'overloaded' suggests an imbalance between demand and capacity, mirroring the problem being described.
17 / 20
Slack message from Sarah (Frontend): 'The new UI component is causing a memory leak. We need to address it ASAP.'
Response from Mark (Backend): 'Okay, we'll look into it. It might be related to how the data is being serialized…' Which ellipsis best completes Mark's message?
'Serialized' is the correct substitution because Mark is likely referring to how the UI component's data is being handled. The process of converting complex data structures into a stream of bytes for transmission or storage is known as serialization. The other options are related to data validation, aggregation, and de-serialization, which aren't directly relevant to the memory leak scenario.
18 / 20
PR description for a code change: 'Implemented new error handling. This should prevent crashes when invalid input is received.'
Which ellipsis best completes the description to provide more detail without adding unnecessary length?
'Handled' is the most suitable substitution because it concisely describes what the new error handling does. While 'validated,' 'logged,' and 'resolved' are related concepts, 'handled' directly addresses the core purpose of mitigating errors. A PR description should focus on *what* the code does, not a detailed explanation of every step.
19 / 20
Standup update from David (DevOps): 'The deployment pipeline failed again. It kept rolling back after the code merge.'
Which ellipsis best completes David's statement to explain the cause of the failure?
'Reverted' is the most precise choice here. The statement indicates a rollback, meaning the deployment process automatically returned to a previous version after a merge. The other options – 'integrated,' 'validated,' and 'triggered' – are related concepts but don't directly explain why the pipeline was rolling back.
20 / 20
Code review comment from Emily (Senior Engineer): 'The function is performing a lot of string manipulation. It could be optimized for performance.'
Which ellipsis best completes the comment to suggest a specific improvement?
'Extracted' is the most appropriate substitution. Suggesting that the function's string manipulation logic should be separated into a dedicated, reusable component (an 'extracted' function) is a common and effective optimization strategy for improving performance and maintainability. The other options relate to different stages of the development process but don't directly address the issue of excessive string manipulation.
What will I practise in "Ellipsis and Substitution in Technical Writing — Grammar Exercise"?
Practice using ellipsis and substitution to avoid repetition in technical conversations, design docs, and sprint retrospectives. 5 interactive exercises.
How many exercises are in this module?
This module has 20 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
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Every exercise is written by the CoderSlingo team, drawing on real workplace English used in IT roles, then reviewed for accuracy and clarity.