Parallel structure.

[Piermo]

Hello everyone,

I read that parallel structure is important for the clarity of a sentence and a paragraph.
But when we have a sentence like this one:

—The children were young and inexperienced and needed a person to guide them in the right direction.

Is this sentence considered parallel with a linking verb and an active verb? And if is not, how can I rephrase it to make it parallel?

Thank you!

 

[emsr2d2]

Parallel structure isn't one of my specialties but I believe that the point is that all the words connected to the subject should be in the same form, ie -ing, or to + infinitive or adjectives.

You have two adjectives ("young" and "inexperienced") but then a verb. To make it parallel, I believe you should change "needed" to "were in need of". That's an idiom but I would consider it adjectival there. (I am very ready for a grammar specialist to tell me I'm completely wrong about this).

Having said all of that, I disagree that parallel structure is necessary for clarity in all cases. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the original sentence and I prefer it to the "were in need of" version. Some people would put a comma after "inexperienced".

 

[jutfrank]

To make it parallel, I believe you should change "needed" to "was in need of".

You meant to write 'were in need of'.

 

[Piermo]

Thank you! Even thanks for let me notice that with a comma the sentence reads better.

 

[Flask]

You have two adjectives ("young" and "inexperienced") but then a verb. To make it parallel, I believe you should change "needed" to "were in need of".

Even though a comma is not technically needed, it would probably be helpful to place one after "inexperienced," to signal that "needed" should not be understood to be coordinated with "inexperienced."

The second "and" coordinates the two verb phrases; the first coordinates the two adjective subject complements within the first verb phrase. In other words, we have coordination at two different grammatical levels.

I find the sentence to exhibit good grammatical parallelism. An old-fashioned Reed-Kellogg diagram can actually be used to illustrate this. Amusingly, the parallelism is represented on parallel lines.

 

[emsr2d2]

Even Thanks for letting me notice know that with a comma the sentence reads better.

The phrase is "let someone know something" not "let someone notice something".

 

[Piermo]

Thank you for the diagram.

 

[SoothingDave]

A comma would help. I would probably use a semicolon to make it clear that the final "and" is not connected to the first one.