Lists with the same form would look like these, below:
(nouns)
cows, sheep, and goats
(verbs)
camping, swimming, sailing, and hiking
(adjectives)
warm, windy, and rainy
(comparison adjectives)
bigger, faster, more powerful, but less expensive
In the last example, the words are parallel because they all compare something.
One important thing to note about lists is that nouns do not have to be all singular or all plural to be parallel.
money, credit cards, and a driver's license
This is a pretty easy idea. If you keep in mind that the list should look right, that all of the words in the list should be related, you will be fine. It is especially easy to spot a mistake when the words in a list are right next to eachother, like they are below:
(incorrect) People come here in the summer to camp, swimming, hiking, and sailing.
(correct) People come here in the summer to camp, swim, hike, and sail.
So when does it get difficult to spot mistakes? Well, when the words in a list are further apart, it's not always so easy to spot mistakes- but even then, it's not hard.
(incorrect) She sets aside time in the morning for running and in the afternoon to play tennis.
(correct) She sets aside time in the morning to run and in the afternoon to play tennis.
To fix mistakes in a list, you usually have two options. When we have a mistake in a list, it is because we have mixed up two word forms and made the list non-parallel. So, once you spot the mistake, decide which word form you want to use and then use it consistently.
For example, look at this incorrect sentence:
Children in the nursery school learn singing and to paint.
This sentence can be written correctly in two ways:
Children in the nursery school learn to sing and to paint.
Children in the nursery school learn singing and painting.
Let's do an exercise on parallel words. In each of the sentences below, underline all of the parallel words that you find. Then, on the lines
