Parallelism

Parallelism: Expressing related ideas in matching grammatical structures.

Parallel structure tells the reader two ideas belong on the same shelf; the matched grammar does the comparing so the words don't have to.

Parallelism examples

• "Easy come, easy go."

  — common idiom

• "Hebrew poetry, including the Psalms, is built on parallel paired lines: the second line restates, sharpens or reverses the first."

  — Psalms

• "Like father, like son."

  — common idiom

• "She wanted a desk by the window, a door that locked, and a year nobody could take back."

  — original example

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