Question

Which of these endings will not create parallel structure for the following sentence stem?

He was tall, quiet, and
A. going to the store.
B. considering his options.
C. very mysterious.
D. making a plan.

I think its A, am I right?

Answer 1

You are right. It is A. Each of the others adds a third characteristic to the two already given. C is very clearly parallel (being a single-word adjective), but B and D are as well. The phrases "considering his options" and "making a plan" both tell you something more about the subject ("he"). Both are thus adjectival in function, though they are verbals (beginning with a word derived from a verb) in form. It is only A that breaks this pattern. The phrase "going to the store" doesn't provide adjectival information, but rather adverbial. It tells you not "what," but "where." It doesn't modify the subject, but rather the verb. Does that help?

Answer 2

I responded earlier but obviously didn't read the question closely enough. I completely missed the "not," and it turns out that was a pretty important word.

This question actually has no correct answer as it's phrased. A, B, and D all wouldn't work because they're verb phrases. The important thing with parallel construction is having the same part of speech in each slot in a list like this. "Tall" and "quiet" are both adjectives, so the third item in the list would also need to be an adjective to keep it parallel.

In response to Redwood Girl, "considering his options" and "making a plan" are not actually adjectives. In this sentence, each phrase would be a past progressive noun (was considering, was making) and a a direct object (options, plan). "I was making a plan" contains a subject, a verb and a direct object -- there's no adjective there.

As a side note, writing something that isn't parallel isn't necessarily wrong per se. It normally sounds better to write parallel sentences, but any seasoned writer will tell you they break this rule on occasion. But it's important to know the rule so you can know when to follow it and when it's okay to break it.

Answer 3

@fcjefe, I agree with you. Given the "not" in the original question, the only possible answer is A. That is the phrase that most disrupts parallel structure. However, the other completions (B and D) are not entirely satisfactory. You might well see them in an essay or a piece of fiction, but more in the spirt of a humorous statement. They certainly are not what you'd expect to see in a question such as this.

I am wondering whether that "not" that appears in the question here is a transcription error. In that case, the answer would be C. it is the one option that most satisfactorily adheres to parallel structure.

Answer 4

Hm. Going, considering, and making are all the same structurally, so I don't know how you would choose between A, B, and D. Are multiple answers permissible? I agree with Redwood Girl that the question without the 'not' makes more sense and the answer to it would be C.

Answer 5

Well, A, B, and C are not completely the same structurally. "He was considering his options" and "He was making a plan" are both transitive verbs with direct objects. "He was going to the store" is an intransitive verb, following by a prepositional phrase of location.

You could say "He was tall, quiet, and considering his options" or "He was tall, quiet, and making a plan" and either of these would be legitimate sentences, albeit (I concede) more in the whimsical category. But you could hardly say, "He was tall, quiet, and going to the store" in any writing context, and have it mean anything, whimsical or not.

There is a sense, I believe, in which "He was considering his options" and "He was making a plan" in which what follows "was" (not the main verb in either, of course) tells the reader something more about the subject. But in "He was going to the store," the information is clearly adverbial.

I took the question to be a subtle one, but really it is more likely that the "not" ought not to have been there.