English Grammar & Punctuation : How to Use Parentheses

Parentheses are often used to offset an intense moment or a weak moment of a sentence. Use parentheses to emphasize or take away from what's going on in a sentence with help from a certified tutor in this free video on punctuation in the English language.

Expert: Paige Carrera
Bio: Paige Carrera is a certified tutor for both Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.
Filmmaker: Christopher Rokosz

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• English
• grammar
• punctuation
• apostrophes
• quotation marks
• adverbs
• nouns
• adjectives
• verbs
• parts of speech
• language
• linguistics

[jacqulineharper24]

i think she meant to say parentheses in england are called brackets and brackets in america are called parentheses bc i have never met anyone who have called the brackets

[CityofLight83]

no offense to ehow but this woman is a writer, not a teacher. She may know about writing but is a bad teacher. just because your a master of your craft doesn't mean you can teach it. so there, nya >:P

[Englishgrammar]

@arightcharlie Yes. She must've made a mistake with the introduction. In Britain everyone I have ever met calls them brackets, parentheses sounds like a skin disease. Or maybe, how you describe them is a social background, class thing, in America as much as it is in Britain.

[Englishgrammar]

I wouldn't be surprised if parentheses is the formal and correct word used to describe brackets, as in (), in British English too but I've never used or even heard of that word before. All my English teachers through school and all my university lecturers (I did not study English, obviously) simply referred to them as brackets.

Maybe it is class thing in the UK. If you're middle class you're taught the correct punctuation terminology and say parentheses but if you're working class you're not

[chiming333]

@zawmbees then how would you use parentheses?

[zawmbees]

That's not how you use parenthesis in standard English. Maybe in article writing, but not for an essay.

[TSHChief]

Actually, I have never heard them referred to anything except as a parenthesis. In the US.

[arightcharlie]

Actually they're called brackets in the UK too.

I have never (ever) heard them called "Parentheses" over here...