English idioms for sorts of "brackets"

[HaWe]

hi,
I often don't know the correct idioms for that what in German is called in generic "Klammern" ("brackets") und "Anführungsstriche" ("apostrophies").

This is how we are calling it - how is it called in English?

( runde round Klammer )
[ eckige angular Klammer]
{ geschweifte curved Klammer }
< spitze acute Klammer >
- Parenthese or coll.: Gedankenstriche -
" Anführungsstriche "
' Apostroph or Hochkommata or coll.: Hochkommas '

[mightor]

Doc,

Here's a great explanation of all the different brackets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket

( ) — round brackets, open brackets, brackets (UK), or parentheses
[ ] — square brackets, closed brackets, or brackets (US)
{ } — curly brackets, definite brackets, swirly brackets, birdie brackets, Scottish brackets, squirrelly brackets, braces, gullwings, fancy brackets, or squiggly brackets
⟨ ⟩ — angle brackets, triangular brackets, diamond brackets, tuples, or chevrons
< > — inequality signs

- == dash
" == quote
' == single quote
` == back tick or apostrohpe

Regards,
Xander

[HaWe]

thank you!

[muntoo]

Here's what I say:
( ) — parentheses
[ ] — brackets
{ } — curly braces
⟨ ⟩ — angle brackets
< > — inequality signs, angle brackets

- == hyphen!!! Not "dash"!
" == quote, quotation mark
' == apostrophe
` == (an apostrophe is the mirror image of this)

[HaWe]

thx 2you, 2, mun2! :)
brackets and braces, interesting...

Nevertheless, the angle brackets I can't see, I only see 2 squares filled with

Code: Select all

2 7      2 7
E 8      E 9

(both at Xander's abd at your post)

[dimasterooo]

It's probably your browser; when I lived in germany mine did the same cuz it was set to german or sumthing. It also replaced ' with '.

[muntoo]

The left angle bracket is U+3008.


In Chromium (I'm on Ubuntu at the moment), I have Unicode (UTF-8) as the character encoding.

[HaWe]

aah, yes, I see, these are "quotes" which are used mostly in literature.
In Germany, we use
the traffic sign said >> hug me <<
in France they use
the traffic sign said << hug me >>

(the white space in between of course is smaller and the angle is more stump)

We use the single form when quoting quotes:

He told me in all seriousness : >> the traffic sign said to me > hug me < when I had to stop in front of it because of a car accident .<<

[savedcoder]

() parentheses
[] brackets, square brackets
{} curly braces, curly brackets
<> grater than, less than

- dash or minus
" quote, quotation mark
' apostrophe
` I don't have a name for this. (I never use it.)

[muntoo]

Whoops, I meant to say:
( ) — parentheses
[ ] — brackets

My mom calls the first pair "brackets", but I don't.