GRAMMATICAL PARALLELISM

Question

Hey Guys, I'm quite confused as to which of these two sentences is correct as to avoid infringing the rules of parallelism. Can anyone explain it to me..=)

(a) This song emolliently resonates the hearts of those who truly feel sorry for hurting someone and making them know that everything's okay.

(b) This song emolliently resonates the hearts of those who truly feel sorry for hurting someone and make them know that everything's okay.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Anonymous (a). . . . sorry for hurting someone and making them know that everything's okay.
(b). . . . sorry for hurting someone and make them know that everything's okay.

I am sorry for hurting you and making you sad.

I am sorry to hurt you and [to] make you sad.

These are both parallel in that the non-finite verbals are of the same type within each sentence.

Your sentence (a) uses parallel structure, connecting the two present participles with "and."

Sentence (b) is not parallel, because it connects a participle with an infinitive.

Anonymous · Answer

Hey Guys.. I'm quite confused as to which of these two sentences is correct as to avoid infringing the rules of parallelism.. Can anyone explain it to me..

(a) This song emolliently resonates the hearts of those who truly feel sorry for hurting someone and making them tell you that everything's okay.

(b) This song emolliently resonates the hearts of those who truly feel sorry for hurting someone and make them tell you that eveything's okay.

The first sentece has an -ing form to parallel the verb "hurting" to "making"

The second sentence paralleled the first verb "feel" to "make"

I'm confused.. which between the two is right?

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Just a comment on this sentence which I find strange in the sense that one is apologizing in advance with the intent to hurt another:
I am sorry to hurt you and [to] make you sad.

Usually, we apologize to people when we felt guilty about doing something bad or hurtful to others by saying something like " I am sorry that I've hurt you". Although "sorry for hurting you...." may seem grammatical enough to make sense, but it does have that "sticky" feeling with it. That's just my two cents.

Avangi · Answer

The perfect infinitive may be best.
I tried to stick with the original tense. I don't think the simple present is incorrect, but I take your point.
- A.

GRAMMATICAL PARALLELISM

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