ShmoopTube

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Today we're going to see which punctuation marks pair best with parenthetical elements,

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because apparently, we don't have much of a life. [hand writing parenthetical elements on a white board]

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….Huh.

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…That's a hard realization, but just keeping it real.

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….Anyway.

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To get started, let's remember what a parenthetical element is all about. [parenthetical element definition]

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It's a part of a sentence that gives extra information that isn't important to the meaning

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of the sentence.

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In other words, a parenthetical element can be snipped out of a sentence…[pair of scissors snipping out parts of sentence]

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…and the sentence will still be as cool as a cucumber.

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It won't have the light, watery flavor of a cucumber, so please don't try to eat the [cucumber shivering in the snow]

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sentence.

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You'd think we wouldn't have to say that, but people are endlessly surprising us…

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We need some sort of punctuation to set off a parenthetical element from the rest of the

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sentence, and it turns out we have three options.

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Almost an embarrassment of riches… [money falling]

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So we have commas, parentheses, and dashes.

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However, which one we use isn't just a matter of random chance. [fruit machine spinning]

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No one should rely on Vegas odds for good grammar.

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And uh…be careful relying on Vegas odds in general. [white ball lands in a roulette wheel]

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PSA over.

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So we use commas to separate out a parenthetical element when the element includes a connecting

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word.

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Common connecting words include "which," "or," "if," "but," "so," "who," "where," "when," [list of connecting words]

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and "although."

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So in a sentence like "Our dog, although well behaved, is kind of terrifying"… [dog standing while on a leash]

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…that "although" is a clear sign that we'll be separating out that parenthetical element

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with commas.

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It's also a sign that maybe you need some kind of mask for your dog…or maybe a rabies [dog wearing a minion mask]

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test….

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We use parentheses when the element doesn't include a connecting word, or if the element

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is a complete sentence.

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That means for a sentence like…"My favorite chair (the one with the bright orange spots) [a organge spotted chair]

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is really comfortable"…

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…the lack of connecting words is a clear sign that we're in for some parentheses.

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And we might also be in for some interior decorating tips. [man thinking about the interior design of his bedroom]

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Unless you're really, really into those bright orange spots.

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We're not here to judge.

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Finally, we use dashes when we really want to emphasize the parenthetical element.

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In a sentence like "We could barely believe that Johnny—the shortest kid in class—could [Johnny spinning a basketball on his finger]

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dunk a basketball"…

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…Johnny's shortness is really important.

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He basically has no other traits.

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He's just a short blob.

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…Sorry, Johnny.

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Just keeping it real.

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Anyway, we'd want to throw some dashes in there. [Dashes input into the sentence]

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We'd also probably want to throw Johnny the ball. [Johnny dunking a basketball]

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Man, that tiny blob can dunk…

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And those are our three options.

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Now we're going to go sob ourselves to sleep because seriously, this was our only plan [Man napping on a red chair]

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for the day…

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Maybe we can shoot hoops with that little blob creature…

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