If you removed the bracketed material the sentence would still make perfectly good sense. For example:. Mount Everest in the Himalayas is the highest mountain in the world. He coined the term "hypnotism" from the Greek word hypnos meaning "sleep" and practiced it frequently.
The information inside the parentheses can be as short as a number or a word, or it can be as long as a few sentences. Parentheses always appear in pairs. A sentence should be able to stand on its own without the parenthetical information.
In writing, parentheses can also be used to show a plural version of a singular word. For more about parentheses in writing and how to use punctuation with them, read our article that dives deep into parentheses.
Square brackets [ ] are used to enclose a section of writing or printing to separate it from the main text. They can be used like parentheses, but are often used less often in writing for that purpose. One main use of square brackets in writing is in conjunction with the word sic. To learn more about quoting accurately with sic read our deeper dive into the term.
Another way square brackets tend to be used in writing is to insert a word or name for clarification that is not in the original text.
Just like sic above, it helps clarify what is written. But, when you do see them in writing here and there, the main ways they are used are to hold lists of items or to hold a term or terms that are equal to the one written.
In writing, angle brackets are rarely seen … in English that is. If you think these grammatical symbols are perplexing, wait until you meet the interrobang and other unusual and underused marks. Home Welcome to EF. Programs See everything we do. Offices Find an office near you. About EF Who we are. Any sentence that contains a parenthetical element should still make sense if the element is removed.
Meena studied all night for the grammar test. Meena studied for the grammar test. Periods , question marks , and exclamation points should go before the closing parenthesis or bracket only if they belong to the words inside the parentheses or brackets.
If the punctuation belongs to the surrounding sentence, put them outside the parentheses or brackets. Never put a comma immediately before a closing parenthesis.
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