Unmatched Brackets and Quotes Checker
Paste your text to find parentheses, brackets, braces and quotation marks that are opened and never closed, or closed and never opened. Every problem comes with its line, its column and the text around it, and one click selects it in the box so you can fix it. Free, no sign-up.
Runs entirely in your browser — your text is never uploaded.
Paste or type some text to find brackets and quotation marks that are never closed or never opened.
How to Use the Unmatched Brackets and Quotes Checker
- Paste your text. The check runs as you type, and nothing leaves your browser.
- Read the counts. The cards give the number of marks never closed and never opened; the Marks counted table shows how many openers and closers of each kind the text contains, so a difference of one points straight at the culprit.
- Go to each problem. The table gives the line, the column and the text around the mark. Click Show and the mark is selected in the text box, ready to fix.
- Adjust the settings if needed. Untick Check each paragraph on its own for dialogue that runs across paragraphs, and untick the list-marker or smiley options if you want every
)counted.
What the Checker Pairs
| Marks | How they are matched |
|---|---|
| ( ) [ ] { } | Each opener needs its own closer, and they must nest: (a [b) c] is reported. |
| “ ” ‘ ’ | Curly quotes pair by direction. A ’ with no open ‘ is taken as an apostrophe (students’ essays), so it is never flagged. |
| " " | Straight quotes look identical at both ends, so each is read from its neighbours: a space before and a letter after opens, a letter before and a space after closes. |
| « » ‹ › „ “ | French and German quotation marks, including a “ that closes a German „. |
| （ ） 【 】 「 」 『 』 《 》 | The full-width brackets and quotation marks used in Chinese and Japanese. |
When a closing mark meets the wrong opener, the checker assumes the likeliest slip: a forgotten closer inside the sentence. In A (parenthetical [bracket) text, the ) is matched to its ( and the [ is reported as never closed. A closer with no opener anywhere before it is reported as never opened.
What Is Deliberately Ignored
- Apostrophes. Straight apostrophes are not checked, and a curly ’ is skipped unless a ‘ is open.
- List markers. A
)after a number, a single letter or a roman numeral at the start of a line (1), a), iv)) is a list marker, not a closer. - Smileys.
:),;-)and:-(are not brackets. - Inch and foot marks. In 5'10" or a 12" ruler the quote follows a digit and is not a quotation mark.
A Worked Example
The widget's example has three short paragraphs and four problems. Line 1, column 14: the ( before n = 120 is never closed. Line 3, column 17: the first “ opens a quotation that never ends, because the only ” pairs with the second “. Line 5, column 29: a [ is never closed. Line 5, column 37: the ) that was meant to close it has no opener. The Marks counted table shows the same story as differences: one extra (, one extra [, and an extra “.
Style Rules These Marks Follow
- Parentheses inside parentheses. APA and Chicago both put brackets inside parentheses: (the sample [n = 120] was drawn from…). If the checker finds nested
( (, consider switching the inner pair. - Quotation inside a quotation. American style uses single quotes inside double (“She said ‘no’ twice,” he wrote); British style often reverses them.
- Quotations over several paragraphs. The usual convention opens every paragraph with a quotation mark and closes only the last. Untick the per-paragraph option when you check text like that.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I find a missing closing parenthesis in my text?
- Paste the text into the checker. It lists every opening parenthesis that never closes with its line and column, and the Marks counted table shows the total of openers and closers, so a text with one more ( than ) has exactly one missing. Click Show to select the mark in the box.
- Why does the checker ignore a ) after 1 or a?
- Because it is usually a list marker, as in 1) read the paper or a) summarise. The option applies only at the start of a line. If you write inline lists like a) this, b) that and want them counted, untick it.
- How does it check straight quotation marks?
- A straight " is the same character at both ends, so the checker reads its surroundings: a space or opening bracket before it and a letter after it opens; a letter or punctuation before it and a space after it closes. When the surroundings do not settle it, it treats the mark as closing a quote that is open and opening one otherwise.
- Does it check apostrophes?
- No. Straight apostrophes are ignored, and a curly apostrophe (’) is skipped unless a curly single quote (‘) is open. That is why students’ essays and rock ’n’ roll are never flagged.
- What about quotations that run over several paragraphs?
- In fiction and some long quotations, each paragraph starts with an opening quotation mark and only the last closes. The checker's per-paragraph mode would report the paragraphs that have no closer. Untick Check each paragraph on its own and the whole text is treated as one.
- Can I use it to check code or maths?
- It will pair brackets in any text, but it knows nothing about code or maths. A bracket inside a string or comment is counted like any other, and half-open intervals such as [0, 1) are reported. For source code, use your editor's bracket matching.
- Is my text uploaded?
- No. The check runs in your browser on the text in the box, so the same text always gives the same result and nothing is sent anywhere.