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I came across the sentence: "There is no such thing as a bad memory, don't ever think there is. It's up to us.."

I understand the first part uses "there is" existentially, but I'm curious about the second part. It seems to use ellipsis with "there is" at the end without a complete object.

Is this a grammatically correct construction? How does ellipsis work in this context?

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  • I'm a native speaker and I don't know what the second part is talking about. It's borderline gibberish. Who knows what "it" refers to? Presumably the rest of the text goes on to explain?
    – TimR
    Commented Jun 6 at 0:09

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There is no such thing as a bad memory, don't ever think there is.

Edit

Yes, there's an ellipsis at the imperative, and whichever applicable case has had its noun or noun phrase in square brackets omitted:

... don't ever think (that) there is [one].

or

... don't ever think (that) there is [such a thing].

The optional complementiser was also omitted.

The construction is grammatical although I would use a semicolon before don't.

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  • "Don't ever think that there is [such a thing]", surely?
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jun 6 at 7:58
  • @KateBunting what do you think?
    – hwkal
    Commented Jun 6 at 9:28
  • Thanks, @Kate Bunting. I have added your suggestion to my answer.
    – Seowjooheng Singapore
    Commented Jun 6 at 9:35

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