In contrasting pairs like this, the form without the prefix comes first. You can’t say “abusage and usage” of word order.
Tag Archives: gebruik haakjes
Brackets for alternatives
“A five-point scale of (strongly) disagree, neutral, (strongly) agree.” That makes no sense in English, where brackets add detail rather than expressing alternatives.
(Grand)parents and (sub)contractors
Bracketing off part of a word to express alternatives may be very compact on the page, but it’s not acceptable English punctuation.
Advanced Dunglish 