Brackets

This lesson is all about brackets several different types of brackets.

We need to look at the round brackets or parentheses as shown here.

Square brackets which looks slightly different and curly brackets or braces which look different again in formal writing rarely uses any of these.

We have to be careful with punctuation parentheses are used to separate additional information from the main part of the sentence and removal of the parentheses cannot change the main information so it’s additional often unimportant details that are in bracket or parentheses and also when we remove the parentheses the sentence must still be grammatically correct.

This is important.

and the text in the parentheses can be anything from whole sentences to phrases single words or even single punctuation marks.

We’ll see examples of these.

removal of the parentheses cannot change the main information so in this example our German neighbors made fart asphalt torture or Black Forest gateau.

It was delicious.

And here the information in brackets.

It’s just the translation of shots fired.

Tata is delicious.

So if we remove it we get our German neighbors made shots fired.

Tata It was delicious

or someone might say I’m so stupid.

No really I don’t know what I was thinking and here the information in brackets just emphasizes the fact that some would feel stupid.

So when we remove it we get I am so stupid I don’t know what I was thinking.

Again the main sense hasn’t changed and also importantly when the parentheses are removed the remaining sentence must still be grammatically correct.

So here’s a sentence I bought beer bananas crisps and chocolate for our picnic which sounds sort of okay if we remove the parentheses we end up with a bad sentence which is I bought beer bananas crisps for our picnic.

Something is wrong.

What we have to do is change the original to be.

I bought beer bananas and crisps and chocolate for our picnic when we then remove the parentheses.

We’re left with.

I bought beer bananas and crisps for our picnic which is a correct sentence and the text in the parentheses can really be a wide range of things from whole sentences and phrases down to date single words or even punctuation marks.

I was very ill after eating at that restaurant.

I won’t be going back again as a whole sentence in brackets was a phrase.

It hasn’t stopped raining three days and counting.

Yet

the unemployment figures report May 2018 show the falling trend the politician expressed regret.

Sure when the affair came to light on this little signs or marks after the shore is like a raised eyebrows so it’s showing irony or as an exclamation mark with no punctuation mark.

He managed to eat 20 hotdogs yesterday where the exclamation mark in brackets is emphasizing 20 as being a high number

and here we have a slightly different thing where a single parentheses is used when listing items so for instance your tasks for today are and in one task one two to three task three.

And here we see just a single parentheses on its own and this is really the only case where a single parentheses is used.

All other examples have a pair of parentheses.

Please note 1 parentheses more parentheses because square brackets.

No square brackets are used in censorship they’re also using quotes to add information and can be used in nested brackets to make things clear which comments go where and have a one very specific use namely when writing sic when quoting someone.

Here’s how we use square brackets in censorship.

They replace an offensive word and usually in a transcript the defendant told the court that the copper kicked him in the head so obviously used some bad words and these have been replaced with expletive deleted or sometimes they admit the deleted and just right expletive.

That’s in the written form of ze when we say it we beep it out or she told the reporters my brothers are right there is still my brother or the use within quotes to add information and we should be aware that the extra information is being supplied by the author not the person being quoted Paul said the teacher sneezed 20 times and in square brackets as emphasis added and you see the 20 times is bolded.

So obviously when Paul said it he didn’t emphasize it like this but the person reporting added the emphasis of the teacher said they will leave school early tomorrow.

That’s what the teacher said they will leave school early tomorrow the person reporting this had just added in square brackets that they referred to the children to make it clearer for whoever reading it again.

She the teacher told us this would not happen every week they were just clearing up who the person is.

They can also be used in nested brackets to make things clearer and easier to read.

I have a new job my cousin got me a job at my aunt’s his mum’s firm and here we see the comment is in brackets.

My cousin got me a job at my aunt’s firm and because people weren’t sure who my aunt was and my cousin is clearing up.

My aunt is my cousins mum and so they put that in square brackets just to use a different type of bracket than the main comment.

and they also indicate that a portion of text has been emitted to make reading easier.

In this case the admitted text is not deemed relevant to the report and it just makes things a bit tighter.

I know what you mean.

After all it was her decision.

That’s the main information but in square brackets.

Dot dot dot.

That shows that there isn’t a longer portion of text that was added that was not deemed relevant to this information.

So it has been abbreviated and cut out for the sake of brevity and clarity and have a specific sic use now this is used to indicate in a quotation that somebody made a mistake and that your quoting verbatim you haven’t corrected the quote.

Your reporting exactly as it was stated Bob wrote.

It’s up to them.

It’s their money.

It sounds OK.

But when we actually look at it they use the wrong form of there.

It should be THG.

I are.

And so the person quoting what Bob wrote has written exactly as he’s done.

And then after the wrong bit he’s ever sick to indicate that this was an original mistake in the quote or Peter asked Why is the puppy chasing its tail.

Again it sounds okay but it’s use the wrong form of it’s his use the form that’s a contraction of it is with an apostrophe and not the one without the apostrophe for possessive.

So again the sixth has just been added to show that the mistake was in the original quote that hasn’t been changed.

curly brackets are really not used in formal writing.

They have since very specific use in math to delimit sets as in the set of fruit would be open curly brackets apples oranges pears bananas close curly brackets also using computer programming languages to delineate scope and some people do use them in informal text in place of other brackets.

I think they do this just because it looks nicer and as usual we have to be careful with punctuation so complete sentences in brackets have the full stop inside the brackets unless it’s in the middle of the sentence then we did no full stop and we’ll look at examples the exam was two hours it was barely enough time.

So here the comment in brackets is at the end the exam was two hours full stop.

Open Bracket new sentence capital I mean it was barely enough time full stop.

Close bracket.

or in the middle.

It’s just a continuation of the sentence.

So we’d have our English exam.

That is my favorite subject was three hours long no full stop no capital letter on that even though it’s a full sentence.

That is my favorite subject.

and then freezes at the end of the sentence.

Don’t have the full stop inside it’s only full sentences so we say after the exam we ordered a curry nice and spicy the full stop at the end of the sentence not inside the closing bracket and commas usually go outside the brackets so on Monday I hate Mondays we had a chemistry test so on Monday is the leading parts are on Monday comma we had a chemistry test and the building of information the brackets is I hate Mondays comma goes outside well if it’s a question mark or an exclamation mark that belongs to the comment then it stays inside the brackets otherwise they go outside on Monday I hate Mondays we have a chemistry test and in this case the I hate Mondays the exclamation mark is just to emphasize it and it’s part of the comment so it goes in the brackets or that’s just change it from chemistry to physics on Monday Ah who doesn’t hate Mondays we had a physics test and here it’s a question mark inside the comment and the comment and the question mark belong together so they’re both inside the brackets I hope that’s clear.