How do you improve this sentence?
1. Today at the beach we will most likely skateboard, play Frisbee, and to eat hot dogs.
a) As it is
b) Today at the beach we will probably find time to skateboard, playing Frisbee and to eat hot dogs.
c) Today at the beach we will most likely skateboard, play Frisbee, and eating hot dogs.
d) Today at the beach we will most likely skateboard, play Frisbee, and eat hot dogs.
e) At the beach today, we most likely skateboard, play Frisbee and eat hot dogs.
The first thing I recognize when I read this sentence is that something is definitely off with one of the verbs. Before I even knew about parallel structure, I could probably tell you that D is right; it is “eating” and not “to eat.” It’s almost a rule of thumb, if you have a group of verbs they should be of the same tense. But what does that mean exactly?
It just sounds right? Right. Well, let’s be honest, there’s more to it. Parallel construction means that whether it’s a group of verbs, adverbs, clauses, nouns, adjectives, or any other part of speech, if you are listing, they have to be consistent. Let’s look at an example. Let’s combine these two sentences:
Try this SAT writing improving paragraphs question!
