From a sentence about the Olympics:
"Phelps has seven gold medals in seven tries, compiled six world records and has a chance to trump the great Mark Spitz in his last race."
Of course, it's eight gold medals now.
Anyway, this sentence is not parallel. All the parts of a parallel sentence need to match each other. For example, verb, verb, verb or adjective, adjective, adjective. In this sentence, these are the three parts: "has," "compiled" and "has." (Technically, main verb, past participle, main verb.) There are only two cases of "has," whereas three are needed. The missing "has" is in the middle. Just add a "has" and it's all fixed:
"Phelps has seven gold medals in seven tries, has compiled six world records and has a chance to trump the great Mark Spitz in his last race."
You guys are in luck, because my upcoming article in Writer's Digest magazine is on this very topic. It should be on newsstands in about six weeks.
Isn't has in the first and third example a main, not auxiliary, verb?
ReplyDeleteYou're right. I changed it. I guess this is not my week because this is the second time I've messed up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your astuteness.
We all have those types of weeks. It's impossible to teach without ever making a mistake. Your blog is a service to all of us, but it's also fun to catch the teacher in an error once in a while.
ReplyDeleteKeep checking! (I'll try to outwit you, but chances are I will make an error.)
ReplyDelete