Spoken equivalent of ... (ellipsis)?

Solution 1:

For me, I might pause, I might carry on without a pause, I might say "dot dot dot" or three short "hmm hmm hmm" to denote that there's an ellipses. For reference, I speak Canadian English, but I hear a lot of Americans doing this too.

Solution 2:

Pausing: Short Pause

Introduce the Skill (10 minutes)

Say: When we talk we do not run all our words together. Instead, we pause, or rest, between some words. The pause may be very short, or the pause may be longer. Pausing helps us divide our sentences into meaningful parts. Pausing helps our listeners understand what we are saying, too. In reading, the punctuation helps us figure out when to pause. Some kinds of punctuations that signal a short pause are a comma, dash, semicolon, colon, and an ellipsis. We take a little break at a comma before reading on. We take a little longer break at a dash, semicolon, colon, or an ellipsis before reading on.

What I find fascinating about this suggestion for reading an ellipsis aloud (as a slightly longer pause) is that it's Lesson 4 in Fifteen Fluency Mini-lessons for Grade 3 Readers (2009) p.12. I'm thinking I should read all the lessons.

The one solution I personally would not adopt is to continue reading with no pause whatsoever (or verbalization of some kind). That is an invitation to miscomprehension. The OP's example would make no sense if read aloud without a pause.

Solution 3:

Depends on the reason for the ellipses. If it's trailing off, like losing your thought or being uncertain, then just trail your voice off or give an uncertain intonation.

If it's just omitting some words, then I say ellipsis with a slight pause before & after the spoken word - if I'm talking to well educated-seeming people. If not, or if it's a big or diverse crowd - I just say "dot, dot, dot." Or, if the passage is a bit harder to make sense of with the omission, I just say, "omitted text" or (pick one) "words/paragaph/sentence", etc. "omitted here".