# Grammar question. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-question/468748 "2008-10-20T15:53:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-question/468748/1 "2008-10-20T15:53:14Z")
Why do some sentences have “[brackets]” in them? For instance, I just copied this from a site: “TAPS has opened up the eyes of people to not be so locked about this type of ghost hunting stuff,” Silva said. “It used to be you couldn’t talk about [it].” ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-question/468748/2 "2008-10-20T16:05:54Z")
It’s when a word has either been added, or substituted, to preserve the meaning, but indicating to the reader that an alteration has been made to the original. E.g. the original quote may have said “It used to be you couldn’t talk about ghost hunting stuff,” and either for stylistic (didn’t want to repeat the previous phrase) reasons, or reasons of word count, “it” was used instead by the writer. ---
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-question/468748/3 "2008-10-20T16:13:13Z")
I see. So basically the “[it]” was added to shorten up the sentence and the brackets were added to let me know that. Cool. I never knew what that meant. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-question/468748/4 "2008-10-20T16:33:21Z")
Not necessarily to shorten, but to clarify. Sometimes, the brackets are used to insert something longer, but something that would help the reader. For instance, an athlete, in speaking about last week’s game, may answer a reporter’s question with, “Yeah, that was an easier one.” In the copy of the article, the sentence may be printed as, “Yeah, [last week’s game] was an easier one.” ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-question/468748/5 "2008-10-20T18:01:27Z")
Just to throw in one more thing, if you see [sic] it means “exactly as copied,” suggesting that there was an error in the original reference but it was reproduced faithfully (usually not used for oral quotes but for reference to a text). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grammar-question/468748/6 "2008-10-20T18:58:45Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > It’s when a word has either been added, or substituted, to preserve the meaning, but indicating to the reader that an alteration has been made to the original. You can even see this on the SDMB, when a moderator changes or adds to a thread’s original title (like [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=488730) or [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=488633), for example).