1. Parallelism

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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)

6. Practice
Parallelism Quiz