How can you tell they’ve got it: Brackets and dashes for parenthesis?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Insert a parenthetical phrase using paired brackets, e.g. 'The oldest building (built in 1642) stands in the town square'; Use paired dashes to add an aside or extra detail within a sentence, e.g. 'My brother — who is older than me — lives in London'; Choose between brackets, dashes, and commas for parenthesis based on how much emphasis the aside should receive, recognising that dashes give most prominence and brackets give least. Or just try it together: When your child adds a little extra detail inside a sentence — like "The teacher, who is very strict, gave us homework" — do they correctly use brackets, dashes, or commas around that added bit?

English Grammar & Punctuation Ages 9–10

Brackets and dashes for parenthesis

Your child can drop extra detail into a sentence with brackets or dashes. It could be taken out and the sentence would still make sense.

In curriculum terms

Use brackets, dashes, and commas to indicate parenthesis — additional information inserted into a sentence that could be removed without changing the sentence's core meaning

Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Insert a parenthetical phrase using paired brackets, e.g. 'The oldest building (built in 1642) stands in the town square'
Use paired dashes to add an aside or extra detail within a sentence, e.g. 'My brother — who is older than me — lives in London'
Choose between brackets, dashes, and commas for parenthesis based on how much emphasis the aside should receive, recognising that dashes give most prominence and brackets give least

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Try this together

When your child adds a little extra detail inside a sentence — like "The teacher, who is very strict, gave us homework" — do they correctly use brackets, dashes, or commas around that added bit?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Commas in listsages 6–11Parenthetical commas are a new comma use; learners need secure comma-in-lists knowledge before learning commas for parenthesis

Punctuating Direct Speechages 7–10Direct speech punctuation introduces the concept of embedding one structure within another; parenthesis similarly embeds additional information

Brackets and dashes for parenthesisthis skill · ages 9–10

Unlocks

Advanced Punctuation for Clarityages 11–14Parenthetical punctuation extends KS2 brackets, dashes, commas for parenthesis

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.

Show candidate curriculum codes · 1 ACARA · 1 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E5LA09low confidenceYear 5 · Language

use commas to indicate prepositional phrases, and apostrophes where there is multiple possession

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E5LA09low confidenceEnglish · Level 5 · Language strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Adjective Order in Sentencesages 9–10 Cohesion within paragraphsages 9–11 Commas Before Joining Wordsages 9–11 Commas to avoid ambiguityages 9–10

All Grammar & Punctuation skills →