Lessons · Teaching · the words that get swapped, and keeping a list parallel

The words that get swapped, and lists that keep their shape

A small set of word pairs supplies most usage questions: affect and effect, their and there and they're, fewer and less, between and among, who and whom, lie and lay. Alongside them sits parallel structure: items in a list or on either side of a comparison have to be the same grammatical shape.

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In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a state certification officer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.

What it is for

These are the errors that survive into professional writing because a spelling checker cannot see them: every wrong word is a correctly spelled word. And parallel structure is what makes a list readable, which matters the moment you write a lesson objective or a set of instructions for thirty children.

How to think about it

For the pairs, keep one test each rather than a rule: affect is usually the verb, effect usually the noun; fewer counts, less measures. For parallelism, read the items as a vertical list and check that each one continues the opening stem in the same form.

Worked example

'The policy affected attendance' and 'the effect on attendance'

Verb and noun. This single test settles most items in the pair.

'Fewer pupils' and 'less noise': fewer counts, less measures

If you can count them, use fewer.

'She likes reading, writing and to draw' is not parallel

Two gerunds and an infinitive. Make all three the same: reading, writing and drawing.

'Not only did attendance rise but also results improved' needs matching shapes on both halves

Whatever follows 'not only' must be the same kind of thing as what follows 'but also'.

Your turn

Name the word used with things you can count.

 pupils, less noise

The trap

Treating whom as always more correct. Whom is the object form, and using it where who belongs is wrong in the other direction. Substitute he or him: if him fits, whom fits.

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