Parallel Structure | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Parallel structure (paralelismo) is the principle that items joined together in a sentence should share the same grammatical form: all infinitives, or all nouns, or all clauses — never a mix. It is not a rule the grammar police invented; it is what makes a sentence sound balanced and finished rather than lopsided. Portuguese is, if anything, stricter about parallelism than English, because its correlative pairs (não só... mas também, tanto... quanto) practically force you to repeat the same kind of element on both sides.

The core idea: pair like with like

When you connect two or more things with e, ou, mas, or a comma series, every connected item should be the same part of speech and the same form. If the first item is an infinitive, they should all be infinitives. If the first is a noun, they should all be nouns.

Gosto de ler, escrever e viajar.

I like reading, writing, and traveling.

All three items after de are infinitives (ler, escrever, viajar). The sentence feels clean because the ear hears the same shape three times. Now watch what happens when the parallelism breaks:

Gosto de ler, de escrever e de música.

I like reading, writing, and music. (faulty — two infinitives plus a noun)

Two infinitives followed by a noun (música) jolts the listener. A native speaker would immediately repair it, either by making everything a noun (Gosto de leitura, escrita e música) or everything an infinitive (Gosto de ler, escrever e ouvir música).

💡

The quickest self-check: cover everything except the joined items and read them as a vertical list. If each line could finish the same opening phrase, you have parallelism. "Gosto de... ler / escrever / viajar" — yes. "Gosto de... ler / escrever / música" — the third line fails.

Parallel infinitives

Verb sequences after a preposition or a modal-like verb are the most common place to keep things parallel. After gostar de, adorar, querer, preferir, começar a, parar de, all the listed actions stay in the infinitive.

Ela adora cozinhar, receber amigos e contar histórias.

She loves cooking, having friends over, and telling stories.

O plano é economizar, investir e, um dia, comprar uma casa.

The plan is to save, invest, and, one day, buy a house.

Notice you do not need to repeat the preposition before every infinitive — economizar, investir e comprar share the single frame set up at the start. Repeating de or a in front of each one is not wrong, but it is heavier and usually reserved for emphasis.

Parallel nouns and noun phrases

When you list things, keep them all as nouns (with or without their articles, but consistently).

Levei na mochila o passaporte, a carteira e o carregador.

I packed the passport, the wallet, and the charger in my backpack.

A reunião foi longa, chata e completamente inútil.

The meeting was long, boring, and completely useless.

In the second example, all three items are adjectives (longa, chata, inútil) — and notice they agree with reunião in gender. Parallelism and agreement work together here: each adjective is feminine singular.

Parallel clauses

Longer parallels link whole clauses. The trick is to repeat the same connector or the same clause shape on each side.

Ele disse que tinha chegado cedo, que tinha esperado meia hora e que tinha ido embora.

He said that he had arrived early, that he had waited half an hour, and that he had left.

Each clause begins with que and uses the same past-perfect form. The repetition is deliberate and stylish, not redundant.

Correlatives demand parallelism

This is where Portuguese is unforgiving. Correlative pairs split a sentence into two slots, and whatever fills the first slot dictates what fills the second. The two halves must match.

The most important pairs:

Correlative	Meaning
não só... mas também	not only... but also
tanto... quanto	both... and / as much... as
nem... nem	neither... nor
ou... ou	either... or
quer... quer	whether... or (formal)

With não só... mas também, if you put an adjective after não só, you need an adjective after mas também:

O carro é não só rápido, mas também eficiente.

The car is not only fast but also efficient. (adjective + adjective)

Ela não só estuda, mas também trabalha.

She not only studies but also works. (verb + verb)

With tanto... quanto, both slots must hold the same kind of element:

Tanto o João quanto a Maria foram convidados.

Both João and Maria were invited. (noun + noun)

Ele fala tanto inglês quanto espanhol.

He speaks both English and Spanish. (noun + noun)

💡

The reason correlatives are so strict is that the first word sets up a slot in the listener's mind. When you say não só rápido..., the brain is already waiting for a matching adjective after mas também. Delivering a noun instead (não só rápido, mas também a economia) leaves the slot unfilled and the sentence feels broken.

Comparison: how English differs

English tolerates a fair amount of broken parallelism in casual speech — "I like to read, writing, and movies" sounds careless but passes in conversation. Portuguese is less forgiving, partly because gender and number agreement constantly remind the speaker which form each item is in. The bigger difference is the correlative não só... mas também: English speakers often drop "but" ("not only fast, also efficient"), which is fine in English but ungrammatical in Portuguese — you cannot omit mas. The pair is fixed.

A second trap for English speakers: English "both... and" maps to tanto... quanto, but the order is reversed in how learners often build it. English speakers reach for ambos (the literal "both"), producing ambos o João e a Maria, which is wrong. The correlative is tanto... quanto, not ambos... e.

Fixing faulty parallelism

There are three reliable repairs when a list goes off the rails:

Convert everything to the dominant form. If most items are infinitives, make the odd one an infinitive too.
Convert everything to nouns. Often the cleanest fix for mixed lists.
Split the sentence. If the items genuinely don't belong together, separate them.

❌ Ela é inteligente, trabalhadora e com muita experiência.

Incorrect — two adjectives plus a prepositional phrase.

✅ Ela é inteligente, trabalhadora e experiente.

She is intelligent, hardworking, and experienced. (three adjectives)

Common Mistakes

❌ Gosto de ler, de escrever e de música.

Incorrect — two infinitives and a noun in the same list.

✅ Gosto de ler, escrever e ouvir música.

I like reading, writing, and listening to music. (all infinitives)

❌ O carro é não só rápido, mas também a economia de combustível.

Incorrect — adjective on one side, noun on the other.

✅ O carro é não só rápido, mas também econômico.

The car is not only fast but also economical. (adjective + adjective)

❌ Ambos o João e a Maria foram convidados.

Incorrect — English 'both... and' transferred literally.

✅ Tanto o João quanto a Maria foram convidados.

Both João and Maria were invited. (use the tanto... quanto pair)

❌ Ele não só estuda, também trabalha.

Incorrect — 'mas' cannot be dropped, even though English drops 'but'.

✅ Ele não só estuda, mas também trabalha.

He not only studies but also works.

❌ A reunião foi longa, chata e inútil completamente.

Incorrect — the adverb breaks the run of bare adjectives awkwardly.

✅ A reunião foi longa, chata e completamente inútil.

The meeting was long, boring, and completely useless.

Key Takeaways

Items joined by e, ou, mas, or commas should share the same grammatical form.
Correlatives (não só... mas também, tanto... quanto, nem... nem) force parallelism: the first slot dictates the second.
Never drop mas from não só... mas também, even though English drops "but."
Use tanto... quanto for "both... and" — not a literal ambos... e.
To fix a broken list, convert all items to the same form (usually all infinitives or all nouns) or split the sentence.

Now practice Portuguese

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Portuguese→