Correct this: The virus may cause AIDS, cancer, or even kill.
Do I need to add a word in front of cancer? Would this be correct?
The virus may cause AIDS, produce cancer, or even kill.
No. Take a good look at those three parts of the series:
cause AIDS (verb + direct object)
produce cancer (erb + direct object)
even kill (adverb + verb)
Do you see that they are not the same? That they are not parallel?
Go back to the original sentence and take the series apart as I did in your sentence. What do you find?
The virus may cause AIDS, produce cancer, or kill people.
This makes all three have a verb + direct object.
Yes, adding the word "produce" in front of "cancer" would make the sentence grammatically correct. However, it is important to note that viruses can contribute to the development of certain types of cancer but are not the sole cause. The revised sentence would be: "The virus may cause AIDS, produce cancer, or even kill."
To check if a word needs to be added or if the sentence is grammatically correct, you can follow these steps:
1. Identify the part of the sentence that seems incomplete or unclear. In this case, it's the list of possible consequences of the virus.
2. Consider if there are any missing words that would clearly and accurately convey the intended meaning. In this case, the verb "produce" can help specify the relationship between the virus and the development of cancer.
3. Add the missing word to the sentence to create a grammatically complete and accurate meaning.
By walking through these steps, you can identify any missing elements in a sentence and make sure it is clear and grammatically correct.