Improve Your Writing - 6 ways to compare

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Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you some key words you

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can use when you talk about how things are the same or similar. Okay? So when you compare

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two things -- when you're comparing apples and oranges, there are some similarities.

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

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

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

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

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Okay? So this video is called "Talking about similarities".

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So for this video, I decided I wanted to do a theme. I wanted to look at how Canada and

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England are similar. In what ways are they very much alike? Okay? So each of my sentences

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are going to have to do with Canada and England, and we're going to look at how they're alike

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using these comparison words.

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

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are doing the IELTS -- very important vocabulary here. General English, you can use these at

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university for essays, college, or even just general conversation. So let's get started.

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

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

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we often use when we're talking about similarities is this word, "both". Both Canada and England

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have a queen. Both Canada and England have trees. Both Canada and England have cities.

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Okay? So there are a lot of different things you can compare. This is just one of them.

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Now, I want to say why I wrote the word "beginning" here. "Both" often comes at the beginning

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of a sentence. And notice how the construction is. We have both A and B. Another example,

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"Both cats and dogs are animals." "Both hamsters and mice are rodents." Okay? So we use this

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a lot when we're comparing.

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

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

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immigrants." Canada has many immigrants. England has many immigrants. "Like Canada, England

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has many immigrants." And again, you'll notice "like" is at the beginning of the sentence.

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It's often -- not always, but often -- at the beginning. We have it followed by a noun.

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

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

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"Like women, men are human." Okay? It's not the greatest of comparisons, but you can use these types

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of words when you're comparing. Okay?

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So now, I have some other things I want to compare. In England, they speak English. In

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Canada, we also speak English. Not everybody, but many Canadians speak English. Some speak

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French, but a lot of people speak English. So I'm going to teach you some words you can

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use when comparing these two sentences. "In England, they speak English. Similarly, in

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Canada many people speak English, too. In comparison, in Canada many people also speak

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English. In the same way, in Canada many people speak English." And finally, another way similar

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to this but slightly different, "Likewise, in Canada many people speak English."

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So these are a little bit different from these ones. They all mean how they are the same.

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But you'll notice one of the differences here is these are followed by a comma. "Likewise,

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comma." And then, we have the rest of the sentence. These go at the beginning of the

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sentence. Okay? In case you can't tell, this is a period. So we have our first sentence,

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"In England, they speak English. Similarly, in Canada many people speak English." Okay?

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So you can use these in your writing. They would really, really help on your TOEFL, IELTS,

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or university essays to help you get a better mark.

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

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

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

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like them, but just for the example. So we can say, "Dogs are great pets. Similarly,

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cats are also great pets. Dogs are great pets. In comparison, cats are also great pets. In

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the same way, cats are great pets. Or likewise." Okay?

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So now, let's look at some more of these types of expressions. Okay. Before we move on to

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some comparison words that you can use in the middle of a sentence, I just wanted to

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add one note about "in comparison". Okay? "In comparison" is also used with differences.

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

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

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

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

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can use. The first one I want to teach you is "is similar to". Okay? And the key here

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is preposition. A lot of the times, students don't put the right preposition. So they'll

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say "is similar of", "is similar for". In this case, it's "to". "Canada is similar to

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England." This is one way to show equality or similarity. "Cats are similar to dogs."

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

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

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

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So let's use some of these together. I have here a blank. "England -- the USA" What similar

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word or what comparing word can we use here? Take a moment to think. We could say, "England

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is similar to the USA" Do you agree with that? I don't know. Tell me what you think.

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

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

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We'll add "people also speak English.

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Okay. So what could we put over here? There are

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many different things we could put. We could put "similarly"; we could put "likewise".

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

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

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

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"Like England, the USA is very multicultural."

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So thank you for watching this video. I invite you to come check out our website at www.engvid.com.

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There, you can practice all of these words in our quiz. You can make sure that you're

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using the correct preposition, the correct words in the correct ways. So I invite you

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to come visit our website. Also, you can subscribe to my videos. There are a lot of different

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resources on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and many more things.

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So until next time, take care.

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