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Grammar

Parallel Structure & Word Order

Keep items in a list in the same grammatical form, and put words in their natural English order — two marks of polished, professional writing.

6 min read
Key strategies
  • 1.Items in a list must share the same form: "reading, writing, and speaking" (all -ing), not "reading, to write, and speech".
  • 2.Adjective order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material: "a lovely small old wooden box".
  • 3.Adverbs of frequency go before the main verb but after "be": "I always arrive early." / "She is always late."
  • 4.Keep subject-verb-object order; do not place adverbs between the verb and its object: not "I like very much coffee".

Parallelism: keep the pattern

When you list two or more items, they must be in the same grammatical form:

✗ "She likes reading, to write, and she paints." ✓ "She likes reading, writing, and painting."

This applies to verbs, nouns, and phrases:

✓ "The job requires patience, creativity, and flexibility." (three nouns) ✓ "We need to cut costs and to raise revenue." (two infinitives)

Adjective order

When several adjectives stack up, English follows a fixed order: opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → noun.

"a beautiful little old round red Italian leather chair" (rarely all at once, but the order holds) ✓ "a nice big house" ✗ "a big nice house"

Adverb placement

  • Frequency adverbs (always, usually, often, never) go before the main verb but after be:
    • "I often travel." "He is never late."
  • Do not split a verb from its object:
    • ✗ "I like very much this city." ✓ "I like this city very much."

CELPIP application

Parallel lists and natural word order make your writing read as fluent and controlled. They are subtle, but they are exactly the kind of polish that separates a high-band response from a merely correct one.

Check yourself

A quick self-check on this lesson — pick an answer, then see the explanation. Not graded.

1. Choose the parallel sentence:
2. Correct adjective order:
3. Correct adverb placement: "She ___ arrives on time."
4. Which is natural English word order?

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