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Parentheses are a form of punctuation. You can use them to provide additional, nonessential information or extra commentary, cite sources, or enclose letters or numbers in lists. Watch out for your punctuation in and around parentheses. Ignore the parenthetical text when checking subject-verb agreement. Use parentheses sparingly.
Two of 'em is parentheses, like so. So Paige, what is a parenthesis, and what does it do? - [Voiceover] So a parenthesis is a piece of punctuation that has kind of a lot of different functions. It can indicate remarks by the writer of a text. - [Voiceover] Okay. - [Voiceover] Or specify a definition or a reference.
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If material in parentheses ends a sentence, the period goes after the parentheses. Example: He gave me a nice bonus ($500). Commas could have been used in the first example; a colon could have been used in the second example. The use of parentheses indicates that the writer considered the information less important—almost an afterthought.
If the part in parentheses is inside a sentence, the punctuation goes outside the parentheses: Sally felt queasy (maybe eating six cupcakes was a bad idea). If the part in parentheses is a complete sentence but not within another sentence, the punctuation goes inside the parentheses: Henry tracked mud across the floor as he came in from the rain.
Parentheses definition: . See examples of PARENTHESES used in a sentence.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Julia L. McMillan. Parentheses (also called brackets in British English) are a punctuation mark used to contain text that is not part of the main sentence, but that is too important to either leave out entirely or to put in a footnote or an endnote. Since there are many reasons to use parentheses, be sure that the function of ...
Parenthesis definition: either or both of a pair of signs ( ) used in writing to mark off an interjected explanatory or qualifying remark, to indicate separate groupings of symbols in mathematics and symbolic logic, etc..
