- Hey, everyone. Welcome to another English grammar lesson. Today, we're going to be covering a concept called parallel structure. 

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So when you hear the word "parallel," you probably think of math, right? Like parallel lines. And the concept here is actually kind of the same. In math, two lines that are parallel are two lines that follow the same path without touching and pretty much look the same. And believe it or not, that's basically the same way it works with grammar. Parallel structure is when all of the words and phrases in a sentence follow the same pattern, so to speak. They're written in the same way. 

Let's look at a really basic example of this. "I enjoy hiking, swimming, and fishing." So there are three words here that are all parallel, that are all written the same way-- hiking, swimming, and fishing. They're all written as gerunds, as -ing activities, as things that you do. So this is good. This is parallel structure. 

But what if I did this? "I enjoy hiking, swimming, and to fish?" Well, now these things are no longer parallel, and my sentence is wrong. Let's look at another one. "She wants to go to college and get a job." Now this is also parallel, but my question for you is what two things are parallel here? What are the things I'm actually looking at. Answer is "go to college" and "get a job." Those phrases are both written the same way. "Go to college" is an action and "get a job" as an action. And they're both written in the same tense, so we're good. 

Let's try a few practice ones. "Joey is studying music, dance, and how to make art." Now, what three things should be parallel here? Make a decision. Should be these three. Now, of those three things, which of them are already parallel with each other? Which ones are already written in the same way? Should have said "music" and "dance." 

So then how do we change this last part? How do we change it so that it sounds just like "music" and "dance?" Well, "music" is a noun, and "dance" is also a noun, so we should just say "art." Just "art." "Joey is studying music, dance, and art." 

Next one. "Ben is a talented singer, is good at speaking, and writer." OK, so once again, what things should be parallel here? Answer is, "reader, is good at speaking, and writer." Now, of those three things, which ones are already parallel? Answer is, these two. OK, so how do we change this middle part to make it parallel with the others? Well, it's actually pretty simple. We just say "speaker." "Ben is a talented reader, speaker, and writer." 

Couple more. "Nick spends his days drinking Mountain Dew and he eats Doritos." All right, same question as always. What things should be parallel here? Should have said "drinking Mountain Dew" and "he eats Doritos." Now, these are clearly not parallel, and since there are only two of them, you could technically change either one to make it match the other, but the simplest one to change would be the second part. 

And what would we change it to? Well, we have an -ing activity, "drinking Mountain Dew," so we should change the second part to match that, to become an -ing activity as well, which means "eating Doritos." 

Now, if you wanted to change the first part, if you're really set on that, you could, but you'd have to change it to something like this. "Nick drinks Mountain Dew and he eats Doritos." But again, the best way to do it is to keep it as true as possible to the original sentence, so that would mean changing the second part. 

OK, last one. "I picked up my things, run out the door, got in my car, and drove off." Whew. Yikes. OK, longest one by far, but we should already know that each of these four things should be parallel. The question is, are they? Well, let's think about tense here-- past tense, present tense, and future tense. Which one of these is not in the same tense as the others? Well, let's go one by one. 

"I picked up my things." That's past tense, as in it already happened. "I run out the door." Ooh, present tense, like right now. "I got in my car." OK, that's back to past tense. "I drove off." Hm. Also past tense. So it looks like three of our verbs are all in the past tense, which means we need to change the last one to match the others. 

So the question is, how do we make "run" past tense? Well, simple. We change it to "ran." So altogether, the correct sentence reads, "I picked up my things, ran out the door, got in my car, and drove off." Booyah. 

Cool. Well, whether you came here for a refresher or are just now learning this stuff for the first time, I hope this video helped. Be sure to check out the free practice down in the description, and we'll see you next time. Thanks.