Improve Your Writing

Improve Your Writing - 6 ways to compare

 Hello. welcome to compare things blog, I am going to teach you some keywords you can use when you talk about how things are the same or similar. So when you compare two things -- when you're comparing apples and oranges, there are some similarities.

They're both fruits. When you're comparing shopping to skiing, when you're comparing

a city to a country or the countryside -- there is a certain language we like to use when

we're saying how these things are similar or the same. In this blog, I'm going to teach

you a bunch of expressions you can use when comparing two things to show their similarities.

So this blog is called "Talking about similarities"

So for this blog, I decided I wanted to do a theme. I wanted to look at how Canada and England are similar. In what ways are they very much alike?  So each of my sentences going to have to do with Canada and England, and we're going to look at how they're alike using these comparison words.

So for those of you Reading, if you are doing the TOEFL, these words are essential. If you

are doing the IELTS -- very important vocabulary here. In General English, you can use these at university for essays, college, or even just general conversation. So let's get started.

Okay. So how are Canada and England the same? Well, I would say, first of all, both Canada

and England have a queen. Both Canada and England have Queen Elizabeth. So one word,

We often use  “both'' when we're talking about similarities in this word, "both". Both Canada and England have a queen. Both Canada and England have trees. Both Canada and England have cities. So there are a lot of different things you can compare. This is just one of them.

Now, I want to say why I wrote the word "beginning" here. "Both" often comes at the beginning of a sentence. And notice how the construction is. We have both A and B.

Another example, "Both cats and dogs are animals." "Both hamsters and mice are rodents."  So we use this a lot when we're comparing.

We can also say "like". In this case, we're not saying, "I like Canada" or "I like" -- you

know, showing preference -- we're again showing similarity. "Like Canada, England has many

immigrants." Canada has many immigrants. England has many immigrants.

"Like Canada, England has many immigrants." And again, you'll notice "like" is at the beginning of the sentence. It's often -- not always, but often -- at the beginning. We have it followed by a noun.

I could change this to something else. Imagine if I wanted to compare cats and dogs.

"Like cats, dogs have fur."  I could say that. If I'm comparing men and women,

"Like women, men are human."  It's not the greatest of comparisons, but you can use these types of words when you're comparing. So now, I have some other things I want to compare. 

In England, they speak English. in Canada, we also speak English. Not everybody, but many Canadians speak English. Some speak French, but a lot of people speak English. So I'm going to teach you some words you can use when comparing these two sentences. "In England, they speak English. Similarly, in Canada, many people speak English, too. In comparison, in Canada, many people also speak English. In the same way, in Canada, many people speak English."  And finally, another way similar to this but slightly different, "Likewise, in Canada many people speak English." So these are a little bit different from these ones. They all mean how they are the same. But you'll notice one of the differences here is these are followed by a comma. "Likewise, comma." And then, we have the rest of the sentence. These go at the beginning of the sentence.  In case you can't tell, this is a period. So we have our first sentence, "In England, they speak English. Similarly, in Canada, many people speak English." So you can use these in your writing. They would really, really help on your TOEFL, IELTS, or university essays to help you get a better mark.

One other thing to say about these, just to give another example -- let's use cats and

dogs because it's easier. If we wanted to compare cats and dogs, maybe we could talk

about how they're great pets. People love cats; people love dogs.  Maybe you don't

like them, but just for the example. So we can say, "Dogs are great pets. Similarly, Cats are also great pets. Dogs are great pets. In comparison, cats are also great pets. In the same way, cats are great pets. Or likewise." So now, let's look at some more of these types of expressions. Okay. Before we move on to some comparison words that you can use in the middle of a sentence, I just wanted to add one note about "in comparison".

"In comparison" is also used with differences.

When you compare two things, you're saying how they're alike. But sometimes, because

of the way we use the word, "in comparison" can also be used when we're showing things

that are different. It's used in both of these ways. 

So now, let's look at some sentences -- the middle of some sentences, some new words we

can use. The first one I want to teach you is "is similar to".  And the key here is a preposition. A lot of the time, students don't put the right preposition. So they'll say "is similar of", "is similar for". In this case, it's "to". "Canada is similar to England." This is one way to show equality or similarity. "Cats are similar to dogs."

Another example, we can also say "is the same as". "Canada is the same as England."

This is a little stronger than "is similar to" because you're saying they're pretty much

the same. A lot of people would disagree, but just another word, "is the same as". Okay.

So let's use some of these together. "England -- the USA" What similar word or what comparison word can we use here? Take a moment to think. We could say, "England is similar to the USA" Do you agree with that? I don't know. Tell me what you think.

Let's look at B. "In England, people speak English -- in the USA" So what could we add

here? "In England, people speak English -- in the USA." So there's actually a mistake here.

We'll add "people also speak English.

Okay. So what could we put over here? There are many different things we could put there. We could put "similarly"; we could put "likewise".

 "In comparison." There are many different words we could use here.

Finally, let's try the last one. "Blank -- England, the USA is very multicultural." Meaning there

are people from all over the world living there. What could we say here? That's right, "like".

"Like England, the USA is very multicultural."

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