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Description:

Want even more deets on parentheses? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Language:

English Language

Subjects:

Grammar & Punctuation / Punctuation

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.2

Transcript

00:04
Parentheses, a la Shmoop. Every Thanksgiving, Jason's mom likes to
00:08
slip a very special extra ingredient into her pumpkin pie.
00:12
The ingredient isn't Ex-Lax...
00:13
...or cayenne pepper. Nope. It's pecans. Yeah...a letdown, we know.
00:19
In the world of grammar, those pecans are a lot like parenthetical elements.

00:24
It's like this. No pumpkin pie needs pecans. They're just a little something special...
00:29
...and it's the same way with parentheses and the words, or parenthetical elements,
00:34
between them.
00:35
When an author has something to say that doesn't need to be said...
00:42
...when he or she wants to clarify something, or provide a sense of direction...
00:48
...then it's time to bust out the parentheses.
00:53
Say we have the sentence, "Jason's mom
00:55
bought Cool Whip to go on her pumpkin pie."
00:58
Okay. That's a nice, plain, serviceable sentence. But what if we want to liven it
01:02
up a little bit?
01:04
"Jason's mom bought Cool Whip...parenthesis... because there is no whip like Cool Whip...
01:09
parenthesis...to go on her pumpkin pie."
01:12
Here, the parenthetical elements don't just make the rewritten sentence more interesting.
01:19
They provide us with important information...
01:21
...namely, that Jason's mom has a deep and abiding love for Cool Whip. Mmm, Cool Whip.
01:28
What if we have the sentence, "Jason hates that his mom puts pecans in the pumpkin pie"?
01:34
Boring sentence, right? Bring on the parenthetical elements!
01:37
"Jason...parenthesis...a pumpkin pie purist...parenthesis...hates that his mom puts pecans in the pumpkin pie."
01:44
In this rewritten sentence, the words inside the parentheses give us crucial insight into
01:48
why Jason hates those blasted pecans...
01:50
...and, really, who can blame him? What kind of madwoman puts pecans in a pumpkin pie?
01:57
When using parentheses, there are a few important rules to remember. If the words within the
02:01
parentheses form a complete sentence...
02:03
...the sentence's terminal punctuation stays within the parenthesis.
02:07
If the words within the parentheses do not form a complete sentence...
02:11
...and the parenthesis is at the end of a complete sentence...
02:14
...then the sentence's terminal punctuation goes outside the parenthesis.
02:19
Example time! Say we have two sentences, one of them falling between parentheses. The sentences
02:25
would read like this...
02:26
...Jason stole his mom's pecans so she couldn't put them in the pumpkin pie...period...parenthesis...He
02:32
hid the pecans in the toilet tank... period... parenthesis.
02:36
Now, let's combine these two sentences into one, placing the parenthetical elements at
02:42
the end of the revised sentence.
02:44
Jason stole his mom's pecans so she couldn't put them in the pumpkin pie...parenthesis...and
02:49
hid them in the toilet tank...parenthesis...period. Okay, there's just one more rule to go over.
02:54
If there's a complete sentence within parentheses...
02:57
...and that complete sentence is within a complete sentence...
03:00
...then the first letter of the parenthetical sentence does not get capitalized...
03:04
...and the parenthetical sentence does not get terminal punctuation, unless a question
03:09
mark or exclamation point is needed. Say we want to talk about how much Jason loves
03:14
pumpkin pie. Let's look at a couple of different ways to write that sentence.
03:18
We could write, "Jason adores...parenthesis...we mean he would kill for...parenthesis...pumpkin
03:23
pie."
03:23
Remember, here the first word in parentheses, "we", does not get capitalized.
03:28
Here's another version of the same sentence: "Jason adores...parenthesis...should we
03:33
say he would kill for...question mark...parenthesis...pumpkin pie."
03:36
Again, the first word in parentheses—and this time it's the word "should"—
03:41
does not get capitalized. Parentheses give us a chance to provide a
03:45
little extra insight about what we're writing...
03:48
...and to fret over punctuation placement, which we all love to do so dearly.
03:54
At least we don't have to worry about finding pecans in our pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving...
03:59
...or do we?
Full Transcript