73
votes
Accepted
What's wrong with constructions like "Dragons are big, green, and eat people."?
This pattern is called a series out of control (Bryson, 2004, p. 13) or bastard enumeration (Fowler, 1926, p. 22). It belongs to the broader class of failures of parallel structure such as "Mary ...
- 1,915
15
votes
"You hear but you don't listen" or "You listen but you don't hear"?
Google defines hear as "perceive with the ear the sound made by (someone or something)" and listen as "give one's attention to a sound".
If someone is not paying attention in class, then they can ...
- 3,822
12
votes
"You hear but you don't listen" or "You listen but you don't hear"?
There are various ways of saying this quote. My understanding is that it comes from the Bible. In Matthew 13:13 Jesus said, according to the International Standard Version:
"That's why I speak to ...
- 928
10
votes
What's wrong with constructions like "Dragons are big, green, and eat people."?
The break-down in parallelism can perhaps be more clearly seen if bullet points are used as follows:
• big
(a) Dragons are: • green
...
- 85.8k
9
votes
similar to or similarly to
To this point, the original poster and a commenter have suggested three options for expressing the intended idea:
The fragments were obtained similar to the sticks.
The fragments were obtained ...
- 166k
9
votes
"Otherwise" after "where"
I frankly don't understand why otherwise cannot be used along with where.
The online Oxford Dictionary defines otherwise as:
In circumstances different from those present or considered; or else.
...
- 6,791
8
votes
Parallel use of gerund phrases and noun phrases
Is there any reason you want to use is being in this sentence? The sentence would have the same meaning and much more parallelism if you used:
She is not only a good teacher but also a good leader.
...
- 89.5k
5
votes
"You hear but you don't listen" or "You listen but you don't hear"?
The semantic parallelism between the various kinds of Sense Verbs is usually unnoticeable lexically in the chemical and tactile senses; these sentences all use the same verb in each construction:
She ...
- 108k
5
votes
"You hear but you don't listen" or "You listen but you don't hear"?
First off, the quote is Biblical in nature, from Matthew 13:13. Please note that precise nuance in the Bible is tricky, since there are dozens of variant translations and the base languages are no ...
- 1,021
5
votes
Accepted
All vs everything
They are interchangeable. As Nigel J mentioned in a comment, everything emphasizes a quantized all.
All is use most often when generalizing all of the parts of the whole–
It therefore emphasizes ...
- 304
5
votes
"Otherwise" after "where"
The problem with where is that the customary alternative to where ... is elsewhere .... So if you want to keep where, you're left with two choices:
Use elsewhere, which doesn't work quite as well as ...
- 89.5k
4
votes
"You hear but you don't listen" or "You listen but you don't hear"?
Words have multiple meanings.
look (at something) - eyes are directed (at something)
look (for something) = actively search (for something)
see (something) = eyes register something but no ...
- 71.9k
4
votes
'both in terms of' or 'in terms of both'?
I believe your colleague's position is based on the idea that a conjunction should coordinate elements of the same type.
in terms of both [economic (worth)] and [ecological worth]
satisfies this ...
- 83.7k
4
votes
Accepted
Is "if you need help or having trouble" correct?
I think the correct form is:
If you need help or are having trouble...
Think of it this way. Break the two things into separate sentences:
If you need help...
If you are having trouble...
The ...
- 164
3
votes
"You hear but you don't listen" or "You listen but you don't hear"?
In contrast to what @JonLarby answered, I think hear also has a connotation of perceiving or understanding the message being communicated, which is why the phrase "I hear you" means "I understand what ...
- 139
3
votes
Accepted
Sentence structure and meaning (parallel structure)
The key to understanding the meaning is by reading the text following the sentence - the sentence on its own is very confusing because there's no context.
So if we read further in the article:
...
- 1,204
3
votes
Double Negative with Parallelism
The sentence is flawed, but it's a matter of "faulty parallelism", not the use of could, which is perfectly OK.
I have come up with nothing that you could not have found in Plato ...
This says ...
3
votes
Accepted
Problem pertaining to Parallelism?
Think of this as a list:
Original
The candidate's platform included:
a tax code reform,
an improved school system, and
reviving good relations with the unions.
The first and the second are ...
- 16.3k
3
votes
a parallelism issue - the most interesting garment
Yes, there is a problem with parallelism.
In order for this sentence to not be awkward, it should be rephrased in one of two ways:
Prizes will be given to the best dressed, the worst dressed, and the ...
- 38.2k
3
votes
A question about one point of Donald Trump’s speech at Helsinki
Wow this is a tricky one!
To help, let's consider another instance where we might see this construction
I would rather clean the garage myself than ask that John clean it.
The subject is stating ...
- 1,082
3
votes
Parallelism with "have" and "have been" sounds wrong
I guess you could split the present perfect, but I don't see why you'd need to:
(A.1) Many [video games] have been buggy (adj.).
(A.2) Many [video games] have been poor experiences (zero det./art. + ...
- 177
3
votes
Accepted
What to call the plane between Background and Foreground?
Focal-ground seems appropriate if you wish to stick with the -ground motif. It is the area of greatest focus to the viewer.
In photography we'd typically call that area the focal field. This comes ...
- 22.5k
3
votes
Describing a requirement for patient autonomy in medical treatment
You could perhaps describe the treatment as empowering:
1 : to give official authority or legal power to
2 : to enable
3 : to promote the self-actualization or influence of
(Merriam-Webster) which ...
- 1,111
3
votes
What's wrong with constructions like "Dragons are big, green, and eat people."?
These can all be avoided by more or less the same method:
(a) Dragons are big, green, and eat people.
Dragons are big and green, and they eat people.
(b) The group has interests in Germany, ...
- 3,674
3
votes
as much + something + as anything
No, the speaker says that if you read that, you will find equal wisdom to [the wisdom contained in] anything written in investments. Read the sentence in this way:
I think you’ll find you’ll get as ...
- 35.7k
2
votes
Factoring a for in "of" expressions
The most common solution is to say definitions, as in
According to the definitions of "child-friendly" in the user manual, the safety sheet, and the online product description, the item is safe for ...
- 2,970
2
votes
"Nikki's and Alice's cars" vs. "Nikki and Alice's cars"
This mostly echoes what else is written here, but here's a source with a clearly stated distinction:
Purdue's OWL says:
add 's to the plural forms that do not end in -s:
the children's game
the ...
- 121
2
votes
"Nikki's and Alice's cars" vs. "Nikki and Alice's cars"
The advice here is good, better than what you will generally find for this question. The convention seems to be that, for a joint item (combinatorial) with proper nouns (names of people), putting an ...
- 21
2
votes
How to Make a Parallel Structure when a Same-Class word is Not Found?
I can see that you're looking for brevity, but it can compromise understanding or accuracy, so I suggest the following:
The new tax applies to goods in the following classes: tobacco, alcoholic, and ...
- 146
2
votes
Accepted
When using a verb that has a noun form with a gerund, do you use the gerund or the noun?
I'll go ahead and solidify all the constructive comments into an answer. Both of the example sentences are grammatically correct. However, your implied "generally" question assumes that non-parallel ...
- 176
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