Tuesday 22 March 2016

word choice - Correct usage of "parallel" versus "in parallel" versus "parallelly"

It is a question of grammar. You're looking for a word to qualify the way A and B are used, in the construct “to verb A and B qualifier”. This qualifier has to be an adverb (“a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word-group”).



Now, you want to express parallelism. “Parallel” itself is an adjective, as well as a noun and a verb. It is not an adverb, and as such, cannot be used in “using A and B parallel”. The natural adverb that derives from parallel is parallelly; though it's not exactly very common in general usage, it does exist and is attested in multiple (though not all) dictionaries. So, “using A and B parallelly” works.



Regarding in parallel, it so happens that it is a common phrase meaning “occurring at the same time and having some connection”. It may be more commonly used than parallelly, which is why it would feel very natural in your sentence, but both are correct.

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