¶ Parallelism
The balance between two or more similar words, phrases, or clauses is called parallelism in grammar. Parallelism is also called parallel structure or parallel construction.
Example:
Incorrect: George likes to read magazines, watch television, and he plays videogames.
Incorrect: George likes to read magazines, watch television, and plays videogames.
Correct: George likes to read magazines, watch television, and play videogames.
IN THE FOLLOWING STRUCTURES, “A” AND “B” MUST BE PARALLEL (MUST HAVE THE SAME GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES).
Not only A but also B
Both A and B
Either A or B
Neither A nor B
EXAMPLE: Not only has he squandered an important opportunity, but he has also upset many people close to him.
Both the underlined words are in the past indefinite.
There can be three types of parallelism:
● Parts of speech parallelism (having same part of speech such as verb-verb, noun-noun etc)
● Tense structure parallelism (having the same tense such as past indefinite- past indefinite)
● Clauses, phrase, and list parallelism (maintaining same structure for example:
PHRASES:
PARALLEL CLAUSES:
¶ Parallel clauses
Parallelism is also applicable to a series of clauses in a sentence.
¶ Lists after a colon
A list that follows a colon should always have parallel elements.
