Parallelism means listing words, clauses, or phrases of the same grammatical unit. Consider the following sentence.
Not Parallel: The cat was huge, furry, had big eyes, and was purring softly.
Let’s look at the items that are listed in this sentence.
Item | Part of speech |
huge | adjective |
furry | adjective |
had big eyes | verb phrase |
was purring | verb phrase |
This sentence lists items about the cat. The problem is that it lists adjectives and verb phrases, making it a bit messy. If you attached each item separately to the main element of the sentence, the cat was, you will see the problem.
The cat was huge.
The cat was furry.
The cat was had big eyes.
The cat was was purring softly.
See the issue? Both The cat was had big eyes and The cat was was purring softly make no sense.
The Solution
Change the items to same part of speech.
Parallel: The cat was huge, furry, wide eyed, and content as it purred softly.
Consider this sentence.
Not Parallel: Jane reads books, wrestled in high school, sings in the choir and paints on the weekend.
Item | Part of speech |
reads books | simple present tense |
wrestled in high school | simple past tense |
sings in the choir | simple present tense |
paints on the weekends | simple present tense |
Although the main element of this sentence, Jane, attaches to each verb phrase comfortably, it isn’t parallel because the phrases are in different tenses. Wrestled in high school is in simple past tense while the other phrases are in simple present tense.
The Solution
Parallel: When she was in high school, Jane wrestled. Currently, she reads books, sings in the choir, and paints on the weekends.
Now you try. Rewrite these sentences using parallelism.
1. I need a new suit, shoes and go to the grocery store.
2. Matthew competes in pie contests, and apple pie is what he is known for.
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