Round brackets and square brackets

General Discussion
1

Do we put a space after the opening bracket and before the closing bracket?

I swear, I’ve looked for a long time on the internet including CMS, MLA and APA… to no avail!
Anyone?

(English language.
For French language, reliable sources were easy to find.)

2

What is it for French?

3

Either the French Academy (the official one) or for typography, this one that is used as a reference (French National Printing Typography Manual, I don’t know the official translation of the book title):

Or ressources of official websites of public education academies (they follow the Ministry of National Education directives). Like this one.

We try to find official sources like that for French.
We try to avoid blogs or websites not with official references, because we don’t know where the source comes from, or reliability.

But each language could have different rules in typography, punctuation, etc.

That’s why I was wondering what the rule is for English language.

4

If you type the opening Parentheses ( or bracket [, there is no space after it – you just put the text in and no space before the closing ) or ]. [

Is there any rule for the placement of space after and before …

english.stackexchange.com › questions › is-there-any-rule-for-the-place…
](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/5987/is-there-any-rule-for-the-placement-of-space-after-and-before-parentheses)

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5

Parentheses ( ) are sometimes used in a body of text to provide further explanation when a word or an expression is difficult to understand. You’ll find them in manuals and guides.

Brackets [ ] are used to offer an explanation to something that you’re quoting. Their use is extremely limited, and personally, I’ve only seen them in history and scientific texts.

Neither requires a space.
e.g. I can’t wait to see my oppa (girls referring to a male friend who is the same age or older).

https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/parens.asp

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6

Thanks to all for your answers.

I have already checked these websites :tired_face:

I was looking, if it exists, for a precise sentence from an official source saying something about space, like don’t put space before and after…

The only info I could find was from the CMS, but it was not said explicitly.
Screenshot_20200227-150610_Chrome

It implies no space after opening and before closing.

How come it’s written nowhere explicitly officially? :thinking: