Brackets and Parentheses

About the course

Learn about brackets and parentheses and how and when they can be used. This course is ideal for intermediate learners.

Introduction

Parentheses
Parentheses refers to round brackets

and can be used to add extra information to a sentence.
Round brackets are used in a similar way to commas when we want to add extra information to a sentence.

The following sentences have round brackets:
I visited Kathmandu (which was full of tourists) on my way to the Himalayas. (The parentheses are around the phrase ‘which was full of tourists’.)
The government's education report (April 2005) shows that the level of literacy is rising in nearly all areas. (The parentheses are around the phrase ‘April 2005’.)

The sentences still make sense without the brackets and read as follows:
I visited Kathmandu on my way to the Himalayas.
The government's education report shows that the level of literacy is rising in nearly all areas.

Brackets
Brackets refers to square brackets [ ] and can be used to do the following:
To clarify a point in a quote
• Brackets can be used in a direct quote to clarify a point by inserting additional information.
• For example, Hedy Lamarr once said: "Most people save all their lives and leave it [their money] to somebody else." (The brackets are around the phrase ‘their money’.)

To replace words in a quote
• Brackets can be used to replace words in a quote without changing the original meaning of the sentence.

• For example, Alice Cooper famously said that "from the moment [he] leave[s] [his] house or hotel room, the public owns [him]." (The brackets are around the words he, the ‘s’ at the end of the word ‘leave’, ‘his’ and ‘him’.)

You will learn

Using parentheses to add extra information to a sentence
Using parentheses to indicate options
Using parentheses to list using letters
Using brackets to clarify a point in a quote
Using brackets to replace words in a quote

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