PARALLEL STRUCTURE (Posted by Nova English Campus)

"Peter is rich, handsome, and many people like him."

No doubt, this sentence sounds great and is accepted in spoken English. But from a stylistic point of view, such a sentence is not acceptable in good written English. Why? When a sentence contains a series of information, all the pieces of information should be grammatically parallel or equal. The sentence may contain two or sometimes even many components.

To put it simply, if the first component is an infinitive (to+base form of verb), the remaining components also must be infinitives.

For example., "He went abroad to study, to work, and to earn a lot of money."
It is incorrect to write: "He went abroad to study, work, and earned a lot of money."

In this example, the first component "to study" is the base form of a verb; so the remaining components ('work' and 'earn')also must follow the same pattern. But do remember many contemporary grammarians argue that the same sentence can also be written in the following way:
"He went abroad to study, work, and earn a lot of money."


More examples (in each pair of examples, the second one is correct):

Peter is rich, handsome, and many people like him.(incorrect)
Peter is rich, handsome, and popular. (Note the parallel use of three adjectives: 'rich' / 'handsome' / 'popular')

Henry is a lawyer, a politician and he teaches.(incorrect)
Henry is a lawyer, a politician and a teacher. (Note the parallel use of nouns: 'a lawyer' / 'a politician' / 'a teacher')

The terrorists approached the hotel slowly and silent.(incorrect)
The terrorists approached the hotel slowly and silently.(Note the parallel use of adverbs: slowly' / 'silently')

She likes fishing, swimming and to surf.(incorrect)
She likes fishing, swimming and surfing. (Note the parallel use of nouns: 'fishing' / 'swimming' / 'surfing')

I have three choices: going to college, getting a job, or the army.(incorrect)
I have three choices: going to college, getting a job, or joining the army.(Note the parallel structure)

Julie entered the room, sat down, and is opening her book.(incorrect)
Julie entered the room, sat down, and opened her book.(Note the parallel structure)

EXCEPTION: If the sentence indicates that the different clauses definitely happened or will happen at different times, this rule does not need to be followed.
Example: She is a senior, studies every day, and will graduate a semester early. (CORRECT)


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Jacob (Nova English Campus)