How do you read parantheses when you read out a sentence?

[herbivorie]

In English, how do you read parantheses when you read out a sentence with them?

For example,

There were eleven boys (22%) and thirty-nine girls (78%) in the group.

Do you read like "There were eleven boys, a parenthesis, twenty-two percent, a parenthesis ...", or maybe you don't read the parentheses?

 

[konungursvia]

You can say "open parentheses.... close parentheses" if you really want to, but with numbers, and in very clear utterances, we just pause much like a comma for each rather than saying anything.

 

[Rover_KE]

I agree with konungursvia, except that I'd say 'open brackets 22 percent close brackets' if I thought it necessary - for example if I was dictating it to somebody who was writing it down.

 

[konungursvia]

That is also a good answer. However, strictly speaking, those are not brackets, but parentheses, and brackets has come to be an easier substitute in the UK and Commonwealth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Parentheses is the plural of parenthesis and as such means a pair of round brackets.

There are various forms of parenthesis, but brackets is the correct and unambiguous description for ().

 

[MikeNewYork]

In American English, parentheses are ( ). Brackets are [ ]. Braces are { }.

 

[herbivorie]

Thank you all for answering my question.

You can say "open parentheses.... close parentheses" if you really want to, but with numbers, and in very clear utterances, we just pause much like a comma for each rather than saying anything.

Okay, I will just pause and won't read the parenteses out unless it's necessary.
But why is it "open parentheses.... close parentheses", not "an open parenthesis.... a close parenthesis"? There are only one open parenthesis and one close parenthesis.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Presumably for the same reason that I would say "open brackets" and "close brackets". They come in pairs and you open them, not it.

It's the verb "open" not the adjective.