Balancing Act

In English text (and in algebra expressions) the parentheses (and other brackets) have to be "balanced." This means:

• Every left bracket has a matching right bracket.
• A bracket must match a bracket of the same type. [ matches ], ( matches ) and so on.
• There can be brackets inside matching brackets as long as all "inside brackets" match up with other "inside brackets."

You can probably already tell when parentheses are balanced. For example, this is OK:

This sentence (which is an example (a short example) of parentheses) is correct (although maybe a bit silly).

Every parenthesis has its match, and "inside parentheses" match other "inside parentheses." You can see this more easily if matches are made the same color:

This sentence (which is an example (a short example) of parentheses) is correct (although maybe a bit silly. )