Question

Which of these phrases uses parallelism to create a sad tone? A. My heart leapt out of my chest the first time I saw Angel. We dated for nine months. B. Angel is the prettiest girl I have ever seen. Angel has the prettiest eyes. The prettiest smile. C. Angel told me it was over. She told me she is over me. She told me to get over her. D. Angel has torn my heart into pieces. I don't know how I will ever recover from this aching sadness.

Answer 1

C. Angel told me it was over. She told me she is over me. She told me to get over her. (APEX)

Answer 2

C. Angel told me it was over. She told me she is over me. She told me to get over her.

As you may know, when parallelism exists in writing, what it means is that the sentences/clauses/phrases/words are similarly structured. For instance, for a list to be parallel, all words will be the same part of speech. Let’s look at an example. (Note the "ing" suffix.)

NOT PARALLEL

I like sleeping, to run, and laughing.

PARALLEL

I like sleeping, running, and laughing.

Beyond the word level, as noted, parallel structure can happen even at the sentence level. Thus, for sentences to be parallel, they will need to contain similar word patterns. Let’s look at the answer for this question:

Angel told me it was over.

She told me she is over me.

She told me to get over her.

Note how each sentence begins with a noun/pronoun, followed by “told me,” which is a verb then pronoun (or subject). It is this structure that makes these sentences parallel and helps to highlight the feeling/tone of sadness.