--- title: Brackets, dashes, colons, semicolons and hyphens — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Brackets, dashes, colons, semicolons and hyphens», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Brackets, dashes and commas can all hold extra information that you could lift out and still leave a full sentence: "My d --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Brackets, dashes, colons, semicolons a… # Brackets, dashes, colons, semicolons and hyphens Lesson 36 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/0/) — Brackets, dashes and commas can all hold extra information that you could lift out and still leave a full sentence: "My dog (a spaniel) loves walks" still works as "My dog loves walks"; this extra part is called parenthesis. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/1/) — Brackets whisper the extra bit, dashes say it louder and add drama ("My dog – a spaniel – loves walks"), and an ellipsis of three dots makes the reader wait... or shows that words are missing. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/2/) — A colon is a drum roll after a complete sentence: something is coming, a list or an explanation ("You need three things: pens, paper and glue"). - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/3/) — A semicolon is a bridge between two full sentences that belong together ("It rained; we stayed in"), and it can also sort a long list whose items already contain commas. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/4/) — A hyphen is a short join inside words, and it can change the story: a "man-eating shark" eats people, but a "man eating shark" is a man having shark for dinner, as a Cardiff gran might put it, "isn't it, cariad?" ("cariad" is Welsh for love or darling). - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/5/) — Parenthesis is extra information added to a sentence; the sentence still makes sense if you take it out. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/6/) — Brackets, a pair of dashes, or a pair of commas can all mark parenthesis. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/7/) — Dashes give a stronger break than brackets or commas, and can make writing more dramatic; used too often they lose their effect. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/8/) — A dash is longer than a hyphen and usually has a space on each side; a hyphen is short and has no spaces. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/9/) — A colon comes after a complete sentence and introduces a list, an explanation or an example. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/10/) — A semicolon joins two complete sentences that are closely related: "It rained; we stayed in." - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/11/) — A semicolon can separate items in a long list when the items already contain commas: "Paris, France; Rome, Italy; and Madrid, Spain." - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/12/) — A hyphen joins words to make one meaning, especially describing words before a noun: a man-eating shark, a well-known song. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/13/) — Some hyphens stop two different words from looking the same: re-cover (cover again) and recover (get better). - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/14/) — In British slang "well" means very, as in "I'm well tired"; no hyphen is needed there. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/15/) — An ellipsis is exactly three dots; it shows suspense, a trailing-off voice, or missing words. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/36-brackets-dashes-colons-semicolons-and-hyphens/16/) — In Australian English "heaps" means lots or very, as in "heaps of dashes". - ← previous: [Direct speech: inverted commas and new speakers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/35-direct-speech-inverted-commas-and-new-speakers/) - next →: [Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)