Both Cher and Tori Spelling are holding auctions to sell their personal belongings. You can place a bid on either Cher's 16th-century terra cotta figurine of Jesus Christ or you can try to buy Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress.
The second sentence contains an error in parallelism. One correlative conjunction is followed by a noun, and the other correlative conjunction is followed by an independent clause. Items joined by correlative conjunctions should be structured in a similar manner.
These are the structures associated with the correlative conjunctions:
- either Cher's 16th-century terra-cotta figurine of Jesus Christ [This is a noun phrase.]
- or you can try to buy Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress [This is an independent clause: the subject is "you"; the verb is "can try"; and the direct object is the infinitive phrase "to buy Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress." The noun phrase "Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress" is the direct object of the infinitive "to buy."]
To correct the error, change the syntax to create structures that are similar.
You can place a bid on either Cher's 16th-century terra cotta figurine of Jesus Christ or Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress.
Each correlative conjunction is followed by a noun phrase. It was necessary to remove the subject and verb of the independent clause and the infinitive portion of its direct object to form the second noun phrase.
You can either place a bid on Cher's 16th-century terra cotta figurine of Jesus Christ or try to buy Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress.
Each correlative conjunction is followed by a verb phrase. The helping verb "can" is paired with both "place" and "try" in this structure.
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