Parallel Construction in
Comparisons
There is an old saying: Don't compare apples with oranges.
The same is true in grammar.  
When comparing two or more people or things, the parts of
speech must match.
For example, it is incorrect to write

(Incorrect) Playing in a marching band is more fun
than the movies.

because playing is a gerund (the present participle used as a
noun) and movies is a common noun. There are at least two
ways to correctly write the above sentence.

Playing in a marching band is more fun than going to
the movies.

Marching bands are more fun than the movies.

In the first correctly written sentence, two gerunds are
compared - playing and going. In the second sentence two
common nouns - marching bands and movies - are
compared. Both of these sentences contain parallel
constructions.

The use of possessives can also cause problems with parallel
construction. Consider this incorrectly written sentence:

(Incorrect) Portland's marching band uniforms are
more colorful than South Portland.

What does this sentence really convey? That the uniforms
that the marching band in Portland wears are more colorful
than the entire city of South Portland! The above example
sentence written correctly would read

Portland's marching band uniforms are more colorful
than South Portland's.
Present Participle:
the -ing  form of the
verb. Asking, thinking,
and working are
examples of present
participles.
Gerund:
the present participle
used as a noun as in
the following sentence.
Performing in a
parade is different
from giving a
concert.
Walking a parade route
in bad shoes is as
painful as shaving with a
dull razor.
Possessives:
indicate that something
is owned by or attached
to someone or
something. They are
constructed by adding
an apostrophe then s
('s) to the end of a word
or, if the word already
ends in s, only an
apostrophe as in
Steve's, or Steve Ross'.
Larry's instrument is
shorter than Yuri's.
Do you want to brush up on (review) your
grammatical terminology?
Check out (look at) the
English Language Glossary!
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