Parallel Structure

Paralelismo — parallel structure — is the principle that elements joined in a list, a comparison, or a correlative pair should share the same grammatical shape. Mix an infinitive with a noun, or a full clause with a bare adjective, and a Portuguese sentence starts to sound off even when every individual word is correct. Parallelism is rarely flagged in A1–B2 classrooms, but it is one of the features separating clean writing from clunky writing, and violations are a reliable signal that the writer is translating from English rather than composing in Portuguese.

This page covers parallelism across the main constructions where it matters: lists, comparisons, and correlative conjunctions — plus the handful of genuine exceptions.

Why parallelism matters in Portuguese

When you coordinate two or more items with e, ou, mas, nem — or bracket them with a correlative pair like tanto... como — Portuguese expects each item to play the same grammatical role. The ear that hears gosto de nadar, correr e ler is expecting a third infinitive after the second comma; giving it a noun instead (corrida) jars the rhythm, even though a Portuguese speaker would still understand you.

Gosto de nadar, correr e ler.

I like swimming, running, and reading.

Gosto de natação, corrida e leitura.

I like swimming, running, and reading.

Both are fine — because each version is internally parallel. The first chains three infinitives; the second chains three nouns. What you cannot do is mix them:

❌ Gosto de nadar, corrida e ler.

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

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Parallelism is structural, not semantic. The items have to share a grammatical category (all infinitives, all nouns, all clauses), not just a topic.

Parallel verb forms in lists

Lists of actions must use the same verb form throughout — usually all infinitives, all finite verbs, or all gerunds (rare in EP).

All infinitives

The most common pattern: after a verb or preposition that selects an infinitive, every coordinated item stays in the infinitive.

Precisas de descansar, beber água e dormir cedo.

You need to rest, drink water, and go to bed early.

Adoro cozinhar, receber amigos em casa e pôr a conversa em dia.

I love cooking, having friends over, and catching up.

Antes de sair, tenho de trancar a porta, apagar as luzes e fechar as janelas.

Before leaving, I have to lock the door, turn off the lights, and close the windows.

Note that in European Portuguese, the personal infinitive can be triggered when the subject is explicit, and parallelism requires every item in the list to be inflected the same way — you cannot inflect only one:

É importante tu estudares, dormires bem e comeres à hora.

It's important for you to study, sleep well, and eat on time.

❌ É importante tu estudares, dormir bem e comeres à hora.

Incorrect — middle infinitive is not inflected.

All finite verbs with the same subject

When several actions share one subject, the finite verbs line up in the same tense and mood.

Acordei cedo, tomei o pequeno-almoço e apanhei o comboio das sete.

I woke up early, had breakfast, and caught the seven o'clock train.

Ela liga, pergunta como estamos e desliga logo de seguida.

She calls, asks how we are, and hangs up right after.

Switching tenses mid-list is a common learner error — acordei, tomar o pequeno-almoço e apanhei — and immediately betrays a translation in progress.

Parallel noun phrases

When you coordinate noun phrases, keep the determiner pattern consistent: either repeat the article on each item, or omit it on each item. Mixing feels sloppy.

Comprei um livro, uma caneta e um caderno.

I bought a book, a pen, and a notebook.

Comprei livros, canetas e cadernos.

I bought books, pens, and notebooks.

❌ Comprei um livro, caneta e um caderno.

Awkward — article pattern is inconsistent.

Portuguese tolerates article-omission on the last item only in very short, set-phrase-like pairs (pão e manteiga, café e bolo), but in neutral writing the parallel pattern is cleaner.

Parallel prepositions

The trickiest version of noun-phrase parallelism in Portuguese involves prepositions. A shared preposition must apply cleanly to every noun in the list.

Falámos sobre o trabalho, a família e os planos de verão.

We talked about work, family, and summer plans.

Here sobre applies to all three nouns — the structure is parallel. But if one of the nouns takes a different preposition, you have to spell both out:

Gosto do Porto e de Lisboa.

I like Porto and Lisbon.

❌ Gosto do Porto e Lisboa.

Incorrect — de is required before Lisboa too.

Because gostar requires de before its object, and because de + o = do is a contraction you cannot share across the second noun (Lisboa takes no article), the preposition has to be restated.

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When a verb or construction selects a preposition, every coordinated object must carry that preposition. Gosto de nadar e correr works because de governs both infinitives through the shared de. Gosto de nadar e de correr also works, with the preposition restated for emphasis. But mixing objects that take different prepositions — gosto de música e a ler — is ungrammatical.

Parallel clauses in comparisons

Comparisons with como, do que, tanto quanto set two structures side by side — and the two sides must match.

Ler é tão importante como escrever.

Reading is as important as writing.

Prefiro viajar de comboio a andar de avião.

I prefer travelling by train to flying.

Ela fala português tão bem como o pai.

She speaks Portuguese as well as her father.

The items on each side are grammatical equals: two infinitives, two prepositional phrases, two noun phrases.

A classic violation compares a verb with a noun:

❌ Ler é tão importante como a escrita.

Mismatched — infinitive on one side, noun on the other.

✅ Ler é tão importante como escrever.

Reading is as important as writing.

✅ A leitura é tão importante como a escrita.

Reading is as important as writing.

Either both sides are infinitives or both are nouns. Don't switch.

Correlative conjunctions

Correlative pairs are where parallelism shows up most visibly — and where it matters most. The two parts of the correlative frame two grammatical equals.

Tanto... quanto / tanto... como

Both meaning both X and Y or as much X as Y.

Tanto o João como a Ana gostam de cinema.

Both João and Ana like cinema.

Ela fala tanto português quanto espanhol.

She speaks both Portuguese and Spanish.

Precisamos tanto de tempo como de dinheiro.

We need both time and money.

Each tanto and each como/quanto brackets a noun phrase — nouns on both sides, prepositional phrases on both sides.

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In European Portuguese, tanto... como is more common in speech, while tanto... quanto feels slightly more formal or literary. Both are correct; choose by register.

Ou... ou

Either... or. The pair rules out a middle ground. Both sides must match.

Ou ficas em casa ou vens connosco — decide.

Either you stay home or you come with us — decide.

Ou pagas agora ou pagas com juros.

Either you pay now or you pay with interest.

Ou por paixão ou por dever, ela nunca falhou.

Either out of passion or out of duty, she never failed.

Nem... nem

Neither... nor. Same logic as ou... ou, but negative.

Nem o professor nem os alunos esperavam essa pergunta.

Neither the professor nor the students expected that question.

Não tenho nem tempo nem paciência para isso.

I have neither the time nor the patience for that.

Não só... mas também

Not only... but also. A favourite of essay writers. Requires particularly strict parallelism because the structure is rhetorically weighted.

Não só aprendeu português como também se apaixonou pelo país.

Not only did he learn Portuguese, he also fell in love with the country.

A reforma não só aumentou os impostos mas também reduziu os apoios sociais.

The reform not only raised taxes but also cut social benefits.

Ela é não só inteligente mas também extremamente trabalhadora.

She is not only intelligent but also extremely hard-working.

Notice the last example carefully: não só brackets an adjective (inteligente), and mas também brackets another adjective (extremamente trabalhadora). If you put não só é inteligente mas também trabalha imenso, you have broken parallelism — a copular predicate on one side and a full finite clause on the other.

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The correlative como também (without mas) is also correct and very common in European Portuguese: Não só aprendeu português *como também se apaixonou pelo país. Both *mas também and como também are fully idiomatic. The key is consistency within a given sentence.

When parallelism can be relaxed

A few constructions genuinely tolerate a slight grammatical mismatch — but they are specific, not a general license.

Short, frozen pairs. Idioms like comer e beber, ir e vir, dia e noite are frozen units where parallelism is a given. You can coordinate an idiom as a single chunk even inside a list of non-idiomatic items.

Asyndetic lists with varied rhythm. Literary style sometimes stacks clauses of different weights for rhetorical effect: Chegou tarde, cansado, sem vontade de falar com ninguém. Here an adverb (tarde), an adjective (cansado), and a prepositional phrase (sem vontade...) share a list — each modifies the subject in the same broad way, so the parallelism is semantic rather than strictly syntactic. Use this deliberately, not by accident.

The final item extension. In lists of three or more, the last item may carry extra material: Comprei pão, queijo e um bolo que achei irresistível. The added relative clause doesn't break parallelism — it extends the last item, a common rhythmic move.

Register: formal prose is stricter

Journalism, academic writing, and legal Portuguese enforce parallelism more strictly than conversation. A WhatsApp message can get away with a loose list; a published article cannot.

Conversation (loose)Formal prose (strict)
Fui às compras, ao médico e passar pelo banco.Fui às compras, ao médico e ao banco.
Ela é rápida, inteligente e sabe ouvir.Ela é rápida, inteligente e atenta.
Gosto do verão, do mar e de tomar banho.Gosto do verão, do mar e dos banhos.

In the left column, the speaker mixes prepositional phrases with verbal phrases — intelligible but slightly ragged. The right column regularises each list into a single grammatical category.

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If you are editing your own Portuguese writing, the first pass to make is always: "Does every item in this list share a grammatical shape?" More than half of the awkwardness in advanced learner writing disappears once this rule is applied.

Common Mistakes

❌ Ela gosta de correr, nadar e natação.

Incorrect — two infinitives and a noun.

✅ Ela gosta de correr, nadar e fazer ioga.

She likes running, swimming, and doing yoga.

Lists after gostar de should be uniformly infinitives or uniformly nouns. Switching mid-list is the single most common parallelism failure in learner writing.

❌ É importante estudares, dormir bem e comeres à hora.

Incorrect — personal infinitive used inconsistently.

✅ É importante estudares, dormires bem e comeres à hora.

It's important that you study, sleep well, and eat on time.

Once you trigger the personal infinitive on the first verb, every subsequent verb in the parallel list must also be inflected.

❌ Não só aprendeu português mas também cultura portuguesa.

Awkward — finite verb on one side, bare noun on the other.

✅ Não só aprendeu português mas também assimilou a cultura portuguesa.

He not only learned Portuguese but also absorbed Portuguese culture.

Não só... mas também demands matching structures. If the first side contains a finite verb + object, the second side needs the same shape.

❌ Prefiro café a chá e um sumo.

Incorrect — comparison structure mixed with a list.

✅ Prefiro café a chá.

I prefer coffee to tea.

✅ Prefiro café, chá ou um sumo, nessa ordem.

I prefer coffee, tea, or a juice, in that order.

Preferir X a Y is a two-item comparison; you cannot tack on a third element with e. If you want to list preferences, restructure the sentence.

❌ Ele é alto, magro e tem olhos azuis.

Awkward — two adjectives and a finite clause.

✅ Ele é alto, magro e de olhos azuis.

He is tall, thin, and blue-eyed.

For descriptive lists, stay within the adjective / adjective-phrase zone. A full verb + object breaks the rhythm of the description.

Key Takeaways

  1. Parallelism means items in a list, comparison, or correlative pair share the same grammatical shape.
  2. Lists of actions: all infinitives or all finite verbs — not a mix.
  3. Prepositions must apply cleanly to every coordinated noun; if one item takes a different preposition, restate it.
  4. Correlatives like tanto... como, não só... mas também, ou... ou, nem... nem require each side to match grammatically.
  5. Comparisons with como and do que align both sides — two infinitives, two nouns, two clauses — not a mix.
  6. Formal prose enforces parallelism more strictly than speech, but even in conversation a ragged list is the tell of a learner still translating from English.

Related Topics

  • Compound SentencesA2 — Two or more independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions like e, mas, ou, porém — each side could stand alone as its own sentence.
  • Complex SentencesA2 — Main clauses with dependent subordinate clauses joined by que, quando, se, porque, embora, and other subordinators.
  • Comparison SentencesA2 — How to build comparative sentences in Portuguese — mais...do que for superiority, menos...do que for inferiority, tão...como for equality, plus irregulars and correlative patterns like quanto mais...mais.
  • Correlative StructuresB1 — Paired connectors that link coordinated elements — não só...mas também, ou...ou, nem...nem, quer...quer, tanto...como and the rest of the correlative family.
  • Coordinating Conjunctions (E, Ou, Mas, Nem)A1 — Joining independent clauses of equal weight — the four workhorses *e*, *ou*, *mas*, and *nem*, plus the semi-coordinators *também* and *bem como*.
  • Avoiding Run-On SentencesB1 — Common sentence-joining errors and how to fix them — from the comma splice (frase colada) to fused sentences, with strategies that fit Portuguese punctuation conventions.