When do you use a brace as punctuation?

You don't use braces as punctuation in standard English writing.

Braces are primarily used in:

* Mathematical notation: To group expressions or indicate sets of elements. For example: {x | x > 5} means "the set of all x such that x is greater than 5."

* Computer programming: To define blocks of code.

* Technical writing: Sometimes used to clarify information or provide additional details.

Punctuation marks used in standard English include:

* Period (.)

* Comma (,)

* Question mark (?)

* Exclamation mark (!)

* Colon (:)

* Semicolon (;)

* Apostrophe (')

* Quotation marks (" ")

* Parentheses ()

* Brackets []

* Hyphen (-)

* Dash (-)

* Ellipsis (...)

If you see braces used in a text, it's likely part of a mathematical expression, code, or specialized technical writing.