MARKERS FOR PARALLEL LIST Hi folks, Parallelism is one of the most heavily tested concepts in GMAT. Non-natives struggle with this concept because most of them study this concept for the first time when they start preparing for the GMAT. To help you understand this concept better, we have decided to cover a few topics in parallelism through a few articles. In this article, we cover “Markers in the Parallel List”. This article is one of the per-requisites for our parallelism session in Verbal Live Prep. How to best benefit from the article? First of all, read this article thoroughly and internalize it. Then apply these skills to the exercise questions at the end of the article. E-GMAT customers may review this article in conjunction with the 6 parallelism concepts we have in the course. We will also post a few official problems after we get a few more responses. Sincerely apply the skills to make sure that you select the correct answer for the right reasons. Only then can you be certain of success on the GMAT. Also, don't forget to download the PDF at the end of the post. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Register_SC.png WHY TO LEARN ABOUT MARKERS Most of the times, it becomes difficult to solve an SC problem pertaining to parallelism because we cannot identify the correct list in the sentence. Hence, it is important to learn about the markers in the parallel list as they help us in more than one way. Knowledge of markers has the following benefits: 1. It helps in identifying the correct intended list in the sentence. 2. It helps in ascertaining the correct marker for the list. 3. It helps in making all the entities in the list grammatically as well as logically parallel. This article is aimed at helping you gain better understanding of the markers so that you are better prepared to handle parallelism problems. LAWS OF PARALLELISM Before delving into the markers and learning how to identify a list with the help of these markers, let us take a quick look at the general laws of parallelism: https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Celebrating-Milestones1.png 1. A parallel list always contains a marker. 2. The list contains the appropriate marker to convey the intended meaning through the list. 3. The entities in the list are grammatically as well as logically parallel. So let us now study a bit more about these laws. TYPES OF MARKERS As we said, every parallel list contains a marker. Hence, it is important to learn about them to identify the correct list. Identifying the correct list is half battle won in solving the parallelism problem. Once the correct list is identified, identifying the errors in the entities and making them parallel, both grammatically and logically become really easy. We can find two kinds of markers in parallel lists – single-word makers and dual-word markers. SINGLE-WORD MARKERS As the name suggests, ‘single-word markers’ are the markers that consist of only one word. For example – and, or, but, etc. These markers join two or more entities and appear before the last entity in the list. Let’s take a few example sentences to see the usage of these markers: SIMPLE EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-1-e1347900883590.png The sentence gives us general information about Joe. It says that he never goes anywhere without his wallet, his watch, and his umbrella. Notice the presence of “and”. It is one of the most common single-word markers that indicate the presence of a list in the sentence. Hence, the entities joined by “and” make the list in the sentence. The 3 entities joined by “and” are • Wallet • Watch • Umbrella https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg SIMPLE EXAMPLE 2: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-2-e1347901052499.png The sentence says that Sue needs something to mark a particular advertisement in the newspaper. She can do the job of highlighting the ad by using a pen, a pencil, or a marker. Notice that “or” is the marker in the sentence that indicates the presence of a list in this sentence. This marker joins 3 similar entities • a pen • a pencil • a marker COMPLEX EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-3-e1347901151280.png The sentence says that this year’s drought has led to scarcity of food that has forced the bears to come to town in search of food. They have walked into farmer’s market, broken into cars, and even gotten into people’s kitchen. This sentence uses one-word marker “and” that joins the three actions done by the bears to look for food. The sentence has a list of three actions done by the bears. • Have wandered through farmer’s markets • Have broken into cars after sniffing out fast-food leftovers • Have ransacked people’s kitchens OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OGV2#1 (WITH CORRECT ANSWER CHOICE E) https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-4-e1347901302449.png This sentence presents comparison between ants and termites. Just like ants, termites also have a detailed social structure with well-defined jobs. While some reproduce, the others serve the colony. They do this job by looking after the young ones, collecting food, building the nest, or battling intruders. This OG sentence has two parallel lists. The first list is marked in blue while the second list is marked in purple . Both the lists contain single-word markers – “and” and “or” respectively. The first list is the main list that defines the main jobs of termites in their society . The second list is the sub-list that defines the actions done under serving the colony . While “and” join two main jobs of termites , “or” joins together the actions done to serve the colony . DUAL-WORD MARKERS As the name goes, these markers consist of two words. These dual words always appear together in a list. For example: either… or…, both… and…, from… to…, etc. The list containing ‘dual-word markers’ has only two entities in the list. Let’s take a few examples here: SIMPLE EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-5-e1347901604393.png The sentence says that because Sam has too many things to look after, he can do any of the 2 things - either prepare a speech or participate in the inaugural song. This sentence uses double-word marker “either… or…”. This is so because the sentence talks about options. Sam can do only one of the two things. Since the option is only between two activities, use of “either… or…” is appropriate. If Sam had to choose one activity among three, then the sentence would use the single-word marker “or”. Note that we cannot use dual-word markers for more than two entities in the list. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 2: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-62-e1347901868169.png https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg The sentence says that Mary got two presents for her birthday, an iPad and an iPhone, both Apple products. These entities are joined by the dual-word marker “both… and…”. Both these markers are followed by one entity each. If Mary had gotten more than two presents, then the use of this dual-word marker would not have been appropriate. Then the entities would have been joined together with single-word marker “and”. COMPLEX EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-7-e1347901991188.png This sentence talks about the new strain of swine flu. The external genes of this particular strain that is called H3N2v jumped from humans to pigs in the 1990s and circulated in pigs separately from the seasonal human flu H3N2. H3N2v has reportedly killed one human so far. So this sentence has two lists. The first list is marked in blue. This lists talks about how the external genes of H3N2v spread. The second list, marked in purple uses the dual-word marker “from… to…” to convey how did it spread. The external genes jumped from one entity to another. OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OGV2#4 (WITH CORRECT ANSWER CHOICE C) https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Picture2-e1381159980486.png This sentence says that piles of personal papers of Edison prove that his inventions came not in a flash of inspiration. All his work slowly evolved from previous works. This sentence presents two characteristics of Edison’s inventions. They did not come to life in a flash of inspiration. They slowly evolved from his previous works. These characteristics are presented by dual-word marker “not… but…”. Both the markers are followed by one entity each. A QUICK LOOK AT THE MARKERS: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Markers-Table-1-e1347909554470.png Note that this is not the exhaustive list of the markers. This list also does not contain the markers of comparison. Parallelism in comparison will be dealt in separate article. ERRORS PERTAINING TO PARALLELISM MARKERS https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg So we learnt that presence of marker in a sentence indicates the presence of a list. GMAC introduces parallelism errors in a sentence in various ways. One of the ways to introduce error is by using inappropriate marker in the list. Using inappropriate marker may include using a marker that changes the intended meaning of the sentence, using a dual-word marker to list more than two entities in a list, using wrong pairs in the dual-word marker, etc. 1. USING INCORRECT MARKER TO CONVEY INTENDED MEANING THROUGH LIST A list must contain an appropriate marker to correctly convey the intended meaning of the sentence. Incorrect markers may change the intended meaning of a sentence. Let’s take examples to see how this error is introduced, what effect this error has, and how it can be corrected. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-9-0-e1347908215819.png The sentence looks familiar? Well yes, we have already analyzed this sentence under the heading “Single-Word Markers”. This sentence uses the marker “or” to present options. Sue needs any one of the listed entities to mark the ad in the newspaper. Now let’s replace “or” here with “and”. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-9-e1347902681495.png Using “and” changes the meaning of the sentence. Now, this sentence does not talk of options. This sentence does not say that Sue needs any one of the listed articles. It now says that Sue needs all the three listed items to mark the ad. Probably, she needs to highlight that ad in a certain manner and that is why she needs all three items. This sentence definitely conveys a different meaning than that conveyed by the original one. Hence if the intended meaning per original sentence has to be communicated, then the second sentence is incorrect because “and” is not the correct marker to convey the intended logical meaning conveyed by “or”. And vice-versa, i.e. if the original meaning is as communicated by second sentence with “and”, then the first sentence changes that intended meaning. Thus, make a note of how meaning communicated by the sentence can change if the marker connecting the list changes. OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OG 12#17 (WITH CORRECT ANSWER CHOICE D) https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-10-e1347908385845.png This sentence says that the commission has asked the advertisers not to use the word “natural” for those foods that contain color or flavor additives, chemical preservatives or anything made artificially. Hence the sentence presents option. If the food contain any of one these listed items, then the advertisers cannot call it “natural”. Now let’s analyze the sentence with incorrect answer choice E : https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-11-e1347908478472.png This sentence is grammatically correct but changes the intended meaning of the sentence. Doing away with “or” has taken away the options. The sentence now means that the food cannot be called natural if it contains all the listed items. But if it does not contain any one of the listed items, then it can be called “natural” because to not have the “natural” tag, it has to have all the listed items. This is certainly not the intended meaning of the sentence. Presence of any one of the listed item will disqualify the food product from the designation of “natural”. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg 2. USING DUAL-WORD MARKER TO LIST MORE THAN TWO ENTITIES A list containing dual-word marker can only have two entities in the list. If the list contains more than two items, then it should contain single-word marker and not the dual-word marker. Let’s take an official example that presents this error: OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OG V2#5 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-12-e1347908626581.png The sentence says that hundreds of species of fish discharge electric currents to do three things: a. to find and attack prey, b. to defend themselves, c. for communicating and navigating. Note that we are only looking at the marker-related error in this sentence. There are three items listed for which many species of fish discharge electric current. But this list contains dual-word marker “either… or…”. Dual-word markers can only be used to list two entities. Hence use of this marker is incorrect here. Hence we can eliminate all those answer choices that uses dual-word marker. Now let’s take a look at the correct answer choice E : https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-13-e1347908798551.png This choice replaces the dual-word marker “either… or…” with only “or” to correctly list three items. Use of single word marker “or” is correct to list three items in the list. The sentence clearly communicates that the many species of fish generate electric currents for one of the listed functions. 3. USING INCORRECT PAIR IN DUAL-WORD MARKER Every dual-word marker has a well-defined usage so it should be used in idiomatically correct fashion, i.e. it must be used with the words that make the correct pair (check the list for dual-word markers above). If the pair is broken by replacing any of the words in the dual-word maker with any other word, then the sentence stands incorrect. This error may also be classified as idiom error. Let’s take an example: OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OG V2#12 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-14-e1347909014142.png This sentence talks about artist William H. Johnson. His artistic debt to Scandinavia can be very well seen in paintings that range from sensitive portraits of citizens in his wife’s Danish home, Kerteminde, to awe-inspiring views of fjords and mountain peaks in the western and northern regions of Norway. The correct dual-word marker is “from… to…” and not “from… and…”. Hence this sentence is incorrect because of the pairing of wrong words. Choice B is the correct answer choice for this OG sentence: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-15-e1347909102419.png This choice uses the correct words to form the correct dual-word marker. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Take-Away-SC3-e1347909196206.png

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Markers in Parallelism

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egmat

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23 Dec 2013, 14:37

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ankurjohar

Hello Team,

I am able to eliminate all wrong choices and left with A and D as the contender option:

Eliminated A because it says

Scientists are now able to create
retaining
altering
and adding

1. list is not parallel
2. marker list is starting with 'ing' modifier, i felt it means because of retaining X, scientists are able to create. Which is again not the intended meaning of the sentence. Hence, incorrect.

Can you please tell the right answer and please explain what is wrong in my elimination process.

Regards,
Ankur

Hi Ankur,

The detailed solution to this question has been posted just a few posts above. Please refer to that post for any further clarification.

Hope this helps. :-)

Wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. :-)

Thanks.
Shraddha

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24 Dec 2013, 18:17

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Hi Shraddha,

Thanks for awesome articles - this article and many others - that you and e-gmat team have posted. Now coming to my doubt about the questions:

Q1 - I chose A. I discarded B, because I thought "grayed and white bones" change the meaning. Grayed - past participle - implies bones have been greyed by something or someone. The original statement, however, never says that. I later realized - only after reading the explanation that shined is wrong too. Please clarify, if the 2nd statement were -

[color=#003471]grayed and white bones, shining pebbles, and discarded plastic figurines and bottle caps

- would it be correct?[/color]

PS: Additional question - not related to original question - Is my if then construction in the sentence above is right(red colored)?

Q2 - I chose C, but I am confused between A & C. Do we necessarily need "did" in this sentence. The sentence says -

Researchers from the XYZ notified about something to the FDA earlier than researchers from the ABC.

I think above sentence can only mean - Researchers from XYZ notified earlier than Researchers from the ABC - and not researchers from XYZ notified to FDA earlier than to researchers from the ABC. IMO - to imply the 2nd meaning use of "to" is necessary after "earlier than." Although I understand C is better, I am not sure whether A is wrong."

Thanks in advance..........

egmat

prep

1. A male bowerbird uses just about anything ̶ gray and white bones, shining pebbles, and discarded plastic figurines and bottle caps ̶ to decorate his courtyard to attract a female.

A. gray and white bones, shining pebbles, and discarded plastic figurines and bottle caps - shining is not parallel to discarded. The former is a present participle and the latter, past participle.
B. grayed and white bones, shined pebbles, and discarded plastic figurines and bottle caps - shined/discarded and grayed - all past participles behaving as adjectives
C. graying and white bones, shining pebbles, and discarding plastic figurines and bottle caps - discarding distorts meaning
D. gray and white bones, shiny pebbles, and discarding plastic figurines and bottle caps - discarding distorts meaning

Hi @prep,

Your analysis for the second question is absolutely perfect. However, you have not selected the correct answer for the first one.

Choice B is not the correct answer of the first question. The correct answer is A.

A. gray and white bones, shining pebbles, and discarded plastic figurines and bottle caps: Correct. Notice that all the entities are noun phrases. They all start with adjective followed by a noun. Yes, all the adjectives are different in structure – “gray” and “white” are colors, “shining” has “ing” construction, and “discarded” ends with “ed”. But all these three entities are adjectives because all these three expressions modify their following nouns. Hence, despite being different in structure, all these noun entities are parallel to each other because all the starting words act as adjectives, no matter what form they are in.

B. grayed and white bones, shined pebbles, and discarded plastic figurines and bottle caps: Incorrect. “shining” is the correct adjective to precede a noun entity.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

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07 Dec 2015, 07:50

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egmat

prep

Hi prep,

Your analysis for the second question is absolutely perfect. However, you have not selected the correct answer for the first one.

Choice B is not the correct answer of the first question. The correct answer is A.

A. gray and white bones, shining pebbles, and discarded plastic figurines and bottle caps: Correct. Notice that all the entities are noun phrases. They all start with adjective followed by a noun. Yes, all the adjectives are different in structure – “gray” and “white” are colors, “shining” has “ing” construction, and “discarded” ends with “ed”. But all these three entities are adjectives because all these three expressions modify their following nouns. Hence, despite being different in structure, all these noun entities are parallel to each other because all the starting words act as adjectives, no matter what form they are in.

B. grayed and white bones, shined pebbles, and discarded plastic figurines and bottle caps: Incorrect. “shining” is the correct adjective to precede a noun entity.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

I skimmed over the meaning part and hit parallelism, but you pulled me into the meaning! This is a good question for the hasty and impatient ones like me!
Thanks Shraddha!

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02 Feb 2016, 22:13

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Hi,

There's one error here.

Between ... and... is not necessarily a dual word thing

Quoting from GMATClub grammar book

"Business negotiations between the governments of the United States, China and South America are going well despite cultural differences."

So whenever we are talking about 2 or more proper nouns, we can use between.

Please add this exception to your (otherwise excellent) post.

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03 Feb 2016, 06:45

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arirux92

Yes arirux92, I agree with your point to an extent. The general rule is as follows:

Use between, when distinct objects ( may be 2 or more) are referred to - I may select any one between strawberry,chocolate or vanilla flavor.

Use among, when a group as a whole is referred to - I may select any one among these flavors.

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arirux92

My understanding was different. Can you give an official example on this? Or are you suggesting that "between" can be used for more than 2 "proper" nouns (but not "common" nouns)?

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Hi E-Gmat team
Thanks for excellent article.
I have basic question

Hundreds of species of fish generate and discharge electric currents, in bursts or as steady electric fields around their bodies, using their power to find and attack prey, to defend themselves, or to communicate and navigate....

This is the correct answer. Can the "to" be outside as well ?
I mean...
Hundreds of species of fish generate and discharge electric currents, in bursts or as steady electric fields around their bodies, using their power to find and attack prey, defend themselves, or communicate and navigate.

I am always confused awith AND, BUT, OR.
Example - X AND Y. X, Y have to be parallel. But can the common things be taken out or we have to repeat? And where should we break the sentence (at the verb ?)

Thanks

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28 Apr 2016, 11:06

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crescendo85

For the above conjunctions (AND, BUT, OR), it does not matter whether you use the common items once or twice:

For example:

....to [(X) and (Y)]....
....[(to X) and (to Y)].....

Both would be correct.

In the first case the parallel items are X and Y - to is outside parallelism.
In the second case the parallel items are to X and to Y - to is inside parallelism.

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Hundreds of species of fish generate and discharge electric currents, in bursts or as steady electric fields around their bodies, using their power either to find and attack prey, to defend themselves, also for communicating and navigating.

is still the sentence communicating the same--The sentence clearly communicates that the many species of fish generate electric currents for one of the listed functions.find and attack prey, to defend themselves, also for communicating and navigating.if yes then what is the significance of "or"

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anshulmangal

Not a correct sentence Anshul; with either, I would expect an or.

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egmat

Hi Folks,

This question is fresh from the oven. Try it out.

Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

A. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

D. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases and add

E. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction and retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

I am having trouble understanding the structure of the sentence. Doesn't the list starts with "create super humans through genetic reproduction" ?

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egmat

Thanks for this amazing article. May I ask if "while" can be considered a parallelism and comparison marker?

P.S: e-Gmat student here

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13 Nov 2020, 04:54

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TargetMBA007

May I ask if "while" can be considered a parallelism and comparison marker?

Hi TargetMBA007, while is not a comparison marker; it is a subordinating conjunction (that usually marks the start of a dependent clause).

nguyenkimphuong

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16 Nov 2020, 01:04

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From the context of the sentence, we know that the author is talking about two types of bones - white and gray. He's only talking about the color of the bones. We keep identical parallel entities in the list here.
Thanks so much.

AnnRogers

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17 Nov 2020, 04:06

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Scientists were able to do four things,
1) Create
2)retain
3)alter

egmat

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24 Jun 2021, 08:19

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priyamitra

egmat

I am having trouble understanding the structure of the sentence. Doesn't the list starts with "create super humans through genetic reproduction" ?

Hello priyamitra,

Thank you for the question.

The three comma + verb-ing modifiers make the list in this sentence. So, the list contains:

You can review the complete solution of this question here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/markers-in-parallelism-139076-20.html#p1259882

Hope this helps.

Thanks.
Shraddha

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04 Jul 2021, 09:23

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GMATNinja

I would be really grateful if you may explain the following or guide me to an article, which can address my concern-

''Hundreds of species of fish generate & discharge electric currents, in bursts or as steady electric fields around their bodies, using their power to find and attack prey, to defend themselves or also for communicating and navigating.''

I understand the intended meaning but I am not able to logically explain myself how 'to find' , 'to defend' and 'for communicating' are parallel to each other. If I remember your video on Parallelism correctly, in the fifth question the term 'prepositional phrase' has been for 'to maintain' and 'for subsidizing'. ' For subsidizing' I can understand it is a prepositional phrase but how can 'to + infinitive' be a prepositional phrase. To + gerund can be a prepositional phrase but I am missing some link definitely in seeing 'to + infinitive' as prepositional phrase. I am not concerned with the correct jargon, I will be thankful if you may just explain or guide me how 'to+ infinitive' is parallel to 'preposition + noun/pronoun'

P.S. Your videos are awesome and thank you so very much for explaining the concepts so nicely. I have seen your seven videos in the last three days and I could apply the learnings in the questions and see the result.
For others- GMATNinja Live Tips Season 1- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 8IfJaZ8qNG

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11 Jul 2021, 07:55

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duttan

Thank you so much for the kind words! Glad that the videos have helped a bit.

Here's some good news: you don't have to agonize about why "to find," "to defend," and "for communicating," are parallel. They're not! You're absolutely right that the first two are infinitive verb phrases and the last is a prepositional phrase. The construction you referenced shows up as one of the incorrect options. The correct answer fixes this issue.

Take another look at the thread analyzing this problem, and let us know if you have more questions!

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11 Jul 2021, 22:39

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Great article!

Parallelism is one of those really essential rules that quickly distinguish an expert's English from a novice's. That's why it is so important not just from a GMAT perspective but also for anyone who intends to speak and write good English.

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29 Sep 2021, 06:27

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egmat

VeritasKarishma
egmat
in option c though the meaning would change, the sentence itself is grammatically correct.

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

retaining.... became ed modifier for the previous clause,

alter the genes.... and add.. became verbs for showing the action done by the scientists.

And in option b the only mistakes that are there

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of

1. altering of genes that are
2. and add

Please let me know if I am wrong