Parallel form means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. This can happen at the word, phrase, or clause level. The usual way to join parallel structures is with the use of coordinating conjunctions such as “and” or “or.”
EXCERCISE
- Mary opened the door and greeting her guess.
- Alice is kind, generous, and trustworthily.
- Please try to speak more loudly and clear.
- He raised his hand, snap his fingers, and asked a question..
- While we were in New York, we attended an opera, ate at marvelous restaurant, and visit some old friends.
- He decided to quit school, go to California, finding a job.
- I should have finished my homework, and clean up my room.
- The boy was old enough to work, and earned some money.
- He preferred to play baseball, or spent his time in the streets with other boys.
- Jane looked for her book but can’t find it.
ANSWER
- Mary opened the door and was greeting her guess.
- Alice are kindly, generously, and trustworthily.
- Please try to speak more loudly and clearly.
- He raised his hand, snaped his fingers, and asked a question..
- While we were in New York, we attended an opera, ate at marvelous restaurant, and visited some old friends.
- He decided to quit school, went to California, found a job.
- I should have finished my homework, and cleaned up my room.
- The boy was old enough to work, and earned some money. (Correct)
- He preferred to play baseball, or spent his time in the streets with other boys. (Correct)
- Jane looked for her book but couldn’t find it.
Hi Mr. Bhaskara and all,
Please correct me if I’m wrong in my answer. And please explaint more about parallel form.
Best regards,
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has 2 post(s) on Swara Bhaskara's English
4 comments
Swara Bhaskara
October 18, 2011
The use of a coordinating conjunction results in a list of whatever sentence elements the conjunction connects (see. Discussion Penggunaan Conjunction atau Connector), therefore, the resulting list should be structurally equal.
1. Mary opened the door and greeted her guess.
It’s a list of what Mary did. If the list contains only two elements, it doesn’t need a comma.
2. Alice is kind, generous, and trustworthy.
So, it should be a list of adjectives. Adverbs of manner (e’g’. kindly, generously, trustworthily, loudly, clearly, etc.) do not follow a linking verb (e.g. to be, look, become, feel, etc).
6. He decided to quit school, go to California, and find a job.
It’s a list of what he decided. Here, the particle to in the infinitives is optional. However, if we use such a particle, then all elements in the list should use it.
He decided to quit school, to go to California, and to find a job.
It will not be in a parallel structure if:
He decided to quit school, go to California, and to find a job.
7. I should have finished my homework and cleaned up my room.
It’s a list of what I should have done.
8. The boy was old enough to work and earn some money. Or, The boy was old enough to work and to earn some money.
9. He preferred to play baseball or spend his time in the streets with other boys. Or, He preferred to play baseball or to spend his time in the streets with other boys.
It’s a list of what he preferred.
Other examples of not parallel structures
Their parallel structures are as follows,
Sentence 1, 4, 5, and 10 that Donal provided are in the same time frames, and therefore, their verb forms should be the same. However, if a sentence is derived from clauses whose verb actions take place in different time frames, then this rule doesn’t need to be followed.
For example:
Donal
October 19, 2011
Waooouuw….. still need to improve my grammer,
there is no one correct in my answer.
But, I proud of you Sir, your explanation is very clear,
Difficult for me to understand the example that you post above.
Donal is hand some, rich, kind, and many people like him. How can be “many people like him” change to “Populer”?
It’s mean those words are smiliar, Sir?
Also for my answer number 3,4,5 and 10. It’s correct Sir?
Any way thanks for the lesson, May I ask you for the next
Warm regards
Swara Bhaskara
October 19, 2011
MY SUGGESTION:
Swara Bhaskara
October 19, 2011
1. My point is that the list should consist of equal sentence elements. If it’s a list or a series of adjectives, then all should be adjectives; If it’s a list of adverbs, then all should be adverbs; If it’s a list of phrases, then all should be phrases; If it’s a list of clauses, then all should be clauses, and so on. In the sentence in question, it is incorrect because “many people like him” is a clause, while the others are adjectives. Regarding the adjective popular, well, it may not be exactly the same in meaning but I think it’s close enough to that of the clause.
2. I didn’t comment question number 3, 4, 5 and 10 because, yes, they are correct. Great.