Bracketed Exclamation Mark?

PiKe

PiKe

PiKe

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Location
Lake District
I've always used (!) to negatively exclaim something in a sentence but I'm not sure it's the correct usage after discussing it with someone, for example I would use:

"I've got to go to the dentist, great(!)"

But it's been suggested that the brackets are purely to take it out of context as to not detract from the main point of the sentence, example:

"My brother rang yesterday(!) and asked if I wanted to go to the Zoo."

Either of these examples correct or does a bracketed exclamation mark just mean nothing?
 
PiKe said:
I've always used (!) to negatively exclaim something in a sentence but I'm not sure it's the correct usage after discussing it with someone, for example I would use:

"I've got to go to the dentist, great(!)"

But it's been suggested that the brackets are purely to take it out of context as to not detract from the main point of the sentence, example:

"My brother rang yesterday(!) and asked if I wanted to go to the Zoo."

Either of these examples correct or does a bracketed exclamation mark just mean nothing?
Click to expand...

I have never used it to negatively exclaim something. I have used it to help place emphasis on something just incase my sentance as a whole doesn't do it justice, for example :

"I found a 245M tall (!) tiger in the park the other day and it was chewing on Maddie!"
 
I always thought it looked like a woman laid on her back with her legs in the air.
 
The second is just wrong because it's not the end of the sentence, and also because it doesn't actually add any information.

I'd use it for sarcasm though, certainly - rather than to negatively exclaim something.

My legs have fallen off! - doesn't require brackets

Cutting your toenails with a scythe, what a wonderful idea(!) - probably does.

:)
 
I've always thought it meant a sort of joke that's actually meant to be sort of serious. I remember a letter a teacher sent home when I was in primary school (God knows why it stuck in my mind), when we were invited to bring our cats into school:

"Please make sure the cats are friendly, as we want it to be a nice day and not a cat-astrophe(!)."
 
I use it mid sentence (!) to emphasise a point without actually causing the grammatical stop that an exclamation mark would cause.
 
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