Brackets, parentheses, this forum and my screen

Posted by Henry on May 26, 2003

In Reply to: Brackets, parentheses, this forum and my screen posted by Henry on May 26, 2003

: : Here I often see references to a "bracketed phrase" appear in parentheses on my screen. Is that my font settings or your software or do many people use the terms brackets and parentheses differently?

: : Perhaps a test is indicated: brackets [], parentheses ().

: A parenthetical element in a sentence is enclosed by parentheses. They may be commas, dashes or some variety of bracket. In mathematics, square brackets have been named parentheses to distinguish them from curved brackets.

Now I've looked it up! This is from [Dead link removed - ed]
"Here are some examples of brackets: ( ) - parentheses, [ ] - brackets or square brackets, { } - braces or curly brackets, - angular brackets. Normally, the word "brackets" means square brackets and not parentheses."

Living in England, I would understand "brackets" to be round ones.

• Brackets, parentheses R. Berg 05/26/03
  • Brackets go to the wall Lewis 06/02/03