General Parallel Markers

[ghong14]

I have been working on alot of comparison questions in the OG and came across the following post by RON about some reoccurring comparison constructions. I understand that parallelism is important in these sentences especially as the structures in their respect to parallel markers.

1 * if you have than/as + subject + FORM OF "TO BE" as the second half of a comparison, then you must have another form of "to be" in the first half of the comparison.

2 * if you have than/as + subject + HELPING VERB as the second half of a comparison, then you must have the SAME helping verb (perhaps in a different tense) in the first half of the comparison.

3 * if you have than/as + subject + FORM OF "TO DO" as the second half of a comparison, then you must have an ACTION VERB (or another form of "to do") in the first half of the comparison.
http://www.beatthegmat.com/soar-t62473-15.html#280069

HOWEVER, I am a little confused as what RON means by TO BE vs. Helping Verbs. Can you provide some quick examples of Helping Verbs vs. To Be verbs vs. To do verbs?

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

Helping verbs are things like "can", "will", "may", etc., that are attached to other verbs (can swim, will go, may do, etc.)

So, as an example of helping-verb parallelism,
I can run faster than my father could when he was my age.

That post isn't quite accurate, though. Most of the time you'll see exactly the same helping verb, but it's possible that you could see 2 different helping verbs in parallel, if that sort of thing would make sense in context.
E.g.,
I can eat more than I actually do.
--> Here, the comparison makes sense: it's a comparison between how much I could hypothetically eat and how much I actually do eat.

[RonPurewal]

"To be" verbs are forms of "to be". E.g., is, are, was, were, had been, will be, and so on.
My brother is taller than I have ever been.




"To do" means do, does, did, has done, have done, and so on. These forms can correspond to action verbs, provided that you're talking about the same verb.
My brother eats more food than my sister does.

[pawank491]

"To be" verbs are forms of "to be". E.g., is, are, was, were, had been, will be, and so on.
My brother is taller than I have ever been.




"To do" means do, does, did, has done, have done, and so on. These forms can correspond to action verbs, provided that you're talking about the same verb.
My brother eats more food than my sister does.

Hi Ron,

According to rules provided by you following question should have answer B. Could you please provide your comments on this.

According to public health officials, in 1998 Massachusetts became the first state in which more babies were born to women over the age of thirty than under it.

A. than
B. than born
C. that they were
D. than there had been
E. than had been born

[RonPurewal]

no. but, there's a big thread on that problem:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t6943.html