How do you make sure you’re using parallelism correctly?
5 answers from our tutors
Hello, 1- Parallel structure with coordinate elements: Make sure they are in the same grammatical form (use consistent verb/noun/adjective form) E.g., she likes hiking, dancing, and reading (not to read). 2- Parallel structure with correlative conjunctions: Correlative conjunctions like "either...or,'' "neither ...nor," "both...and" "not only...but" should be followed by parallel structure, e.g., he not only likes to sing but also dance( not dancing). 3- Parallel structure with comparisons: When making comparisons, elements should be structurally parallel; e.g., she's more interested in painting than in writing. 4- Parallel structure in sentence structure: in longer sentences, the structure of the sentence should remain consistent. For example, she decided to jog in the morning, read a book in the afternoon, and swim(not swimming) in the evening.
use the same verb, noun throughout the sentence.
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- Sofia NegumboTEFL English teacher
Hi To make sure your parallelism is used correctly in your writing or sentence; You must use the same verb, noun, adverb, or adjective forms consistently throughout the sentence. Example: Jade prefers wearing skirts to wearing jeans.
Make sure each part has the same grammatical pattern: She likes swimming, running and bike riding. You cannot say she likes swimming, running and to ride a bike.
You will get them mostly in British movies or comedies. It is popular with orators. A way of knowing is to make sure you have paired nouns with nouns, verbs with verbs, prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases. Example: 1. "Where there is smoke, there is fire" 2. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"
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