How Do You Use Parentheses?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

, , , ,

Parentheses ( ) are

used to enclose nonessential or supplemental information in a sentence

. Parentheses are always used in pairs; you must have both an opening and a closing parenthesis. In formal academic writing, it is a good practice to use parentheses sparingly.

How do you use parentheses in a sentence?


Use parentheses to enclose information that clarifies or is used as an aside

. Example: He finally answered (after taking five minutes to think) that he did not understand the question. If material in parentheses ends a sentence, the period goes after the parentheses. Example: He gave me a nice bonus ($500).

What are the rules for using parentheses?

Rule 1.

Use parentheses to enclose information that clarifies or is used as an aside

. Example: He finally answered (after taking five minutes to think) that he did not understand the question. If material in parentheses ends a sentence, the period goes after the parentheses.

How do you use parentheses in the middle of a sentence?

When parenthetical content occurs in the middle of a larger sentence,

the surrounding punctuation should be placed outside the parentheses

, exactly as it would be if the parenthetical content were not there. We verified his law degree (Yale, class of 2002), but his work history remains unconfirmed.

What are parentheses used for in writing?

Parentheses are used to

enclose incidental or supplemental information or comments

. The parenthetical information or comment may serve to clarify or illustrate, or it may just offer a digression or afterthought. Parentheses are also used to enclose certain numbers or letters in an outline or list.

What’s the difference between parenthesis and parentheses?

The

singular form is parenthesis

, but the plural parentheses is the word you’re more likely to see. For our purposes, a parenthesis is one of a pair of curved marks that look like this: ( ), and parentheses are both marks. …

How do you write an example in parentheses?


Use parentheses to enclose information that clarifies or is used as an aside

. Example: He finally answered (after taking five minutes to think) that he did not understand the question. If material in parentheses ends a sentence, the period goes after the parentheses. Example: He gave me a nice bonus ($500).

What is parentheses and examples?

Parenthesis is

the use of a phrase, word or sentence that’s added into writing as extra information or an afterthought

. It’s punctuated by brackets, commas or dashes. For example, ‘his favourite team – whom he had followed since the age of five – was Rockingham Rovers’.

Do you put a comma before or after parentheses?

Generally speaking,

commas should never be placed before parentheses

.

Can you put a complete sentence in parentheses?

(When a complete sentence is enclosed in parentheses,

place punctuation in the sentence inside the parentheses

, like this.) If only part of a sentence is enclosed in parentheses (like this), place punctuation outside the parentheses (like this).

What does it mean when you put something in parentheses?

When you use parentheses to set off material in a sentence, you say that the material is “

in parenthesis

.” Put something in parentheses if it’s a comment, an afterthought, or additional information that is possibly interesting but not essential to the subject.

What does a parentheses look like?

A parenthesis is a punctuation mark used to enclose information, similar to a

bracket

. The open parenthesis, which looks like (, is used to begin parenthetical text. Parentheses are also called curved brackets, especially outside of the United States. …

Is it bad to use parentheses?

Parentheses, like the em dash and ellipses, is a piece of punctuation that’s often overused in writing. In some instances, parentheses can be useful, but more often than not,

they’re unnecessary

and may even act as a distraction, weakening your writing.

What are the fancy parentheses called?

These { } have a variety of names; they are called

braces, curly brackets

What is another word for parentheses?

In this page you can discover 30 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for parenthesis, like:

brackets

, braces, enclosure, bracket, whitespace, crotchets, delimiter, punctuation-marks, digression, aside and excursus.

Can I use eg without parentheses?

If you are using i.e. or e.g. in a sentence and not including a set of parentheses,

you will need to separate that clause from the rest of the sentence

. To do this, you would include a comma before the clause, and possibly after, depending on the style guide that you are following.

Amira Khan
Author
Amira Khan
Amira Khan is a philosopher and scholar of religion with a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology. Amira's expertise includes the history of philosophy and religion, ethics, and the philosophy of science. She is passionate about helping readers navigate complex philosophical and religious concepts in a clear and accessible way.