Like X, Y....

[CrystalSpringston]

Hi Instructor,
regarding to the common parallel construction Like X, Y....(when X and Y are nouns)
Is it necessary to always keep X and Y the same sigular or plural form?

For example:
Like apples, pears are usually popular in this city.

can we say:
Like apples, the pear is usually popular in this city.
or
Like the apple, pears are usually popular in this city.

And is it applicable to other comprison words ?

Thank you!

[Chelsey Cooley]

This isn't a technical grammar rule, just a matter of what makes logical sense (as is often the case with comparisons!).

If you really are logically comparing many things to one thing, then using a singular and a plural noun is fine:

Like my bicycles, my car is well-maintained.

I have multiple bicycles, and all of those bicycles are similar to my car. Totally fine.

On the other hand, it doesn't make much sense to compare a single apple to multiple pears - and if there's no good reason to do it, don't. Your example is complicated slightly by the use of the 'class singular' (i.e. 'The majestic lion is in danger of extinction'), but it still doesn't make much sense to compare a single abstract group of apples to multiple pears (or vice versa.)

[CrystalSpringston]

This isn't a technical grammar rule, just a matter of what makes logical sense (as is often the case with comparisons!).

If you really are logically comparing many things to one thing, then using a singular and a plural noun is fine:

Like my bicycles, my car is well-maintained.

I have multiple bicycles, and all of those bicycles are similar to my car. Totally fine.

On the other hand, it doesn't make much sense to compare a single apple to multiple pears - and if there's no good reason to do it, don't. Your example is complicated slightly by the use of the 'class singular' (i.e. 'The majestic lion is in danger of extinction'), but it still doesn't make much sense to compare a single abstract group of apples to multiple pears (or vice versa.)

Thank you. I get what you mean. It depends on the context and no such rules on the strict parallelism: singular to singular, plural to plural.

[RonPurewal]

yep,
like every other aspect of meaning, this is determined by context + good old-fashioned common sense.