Parallelism

Definition Balance of two or more words, phrases, or clauses. Basically everything words, phrases, and clauses have to match within sentences

Examples The French, Italians, Spanish and Portuguese are fighting a war. Not Parallel The French, the Italians, the Spanish, and the Portuguese are fighting a war. Parallel: If one country has a “the” in front of it, then all of them should.

Example II In spring, summer, or the winter the students will buy snow cones. Not parallel In spring, summer, or winter the students will buy snow cones. Parallel: Winter should not have a “the” in front of it, if the other two don’t.

Example III The boys laughed, cried, and then were playing when the dog came out of the woods. Not Parallel The boys laughed, cried, and played when the dog came out of the woods. Parallel: All verbs in an items in a series (remember from commas) should be in same tense (remember from verbs)

Practice Parallelism Quiz