Comparing & Contrasting 


1. What you say when comparing things or people

compared to / with  used  when comparing things or people, especially when
comparing numbers or amounts: 
 This year's profits are much higher compared to last year's.
 The  average male now has a life expectancy  of  77.6 years,	compared with  75  in 
1960.
 Total spending on health care represents about 4 percent of GDP. Compared to most
other advanced economies, that figure is low.
 Mortality rates are lower for women as compared with men.

by comparison / in comparison when compared with another thing, person etc:

 Young male drivers have far more accidents by comparison with other groups.
 Wages are low in comparison with the US.
 In his early pictures  he used rather dull colours. His later work is much  brighter  in
comparison.
 The amount of  money spent on  advertising milk	pales  in comparison to  (=is much 
less than) the money spent on advertising beer.

next to / beside preposition used when comparing things or people, especially when
there is a surprising difference between them:
 Our problems seem trivial next to those faced by people in the developing world.
 Their achievements pale beside his. (=they seem much less important)

as against / as opposed to conjunction used when you are comparing two figures 
or pieces of information, in order to show how they are different:
 The company achieved sales of $404 million, as against $310 million in the previous 
year.
 One study predicted that 42% of female university graduates would remain single the
rest of their lives, as opposed to just 5% of male graduates. 


unlike preposition used when saying that people or things are different:

 Unlike his brother, he had no interest in music.
 The  drug has very few side  effects,	unlike  other drugs that are  used  to  treat  this
illness.

in contrast  / by contrast    used when mentioning the  difference between  two 
things, people, countries etc that you are comparing:
 In contrast to the south of the island, the north is still untouched by tourism.
 The  US and Australia,  in contrast with  most other leading  industrialized  nations, 
chose not to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
 Studies show that each execution costs $3.5  million.	By  contrast  it  costs about
$600,000 to keep someone in prison for life. 

in proportion to / in relation to  used when considering the relationship between
the amount or size of something compared to another thing:
 People from Sweden pay the highest rates of tax in proportion to their incomes.
 His head is big in proportion to the rest of his body.
 Britain's national debt  was greater than  that of the US	in relation to  the size of its 
economy.

relative	adjective  used  when comparing  the  amount of  something  that someone or
something has, with others of the same type:
 In his article he compares the relative merits of living in the countryside and living in a 
big city.
 It is too early to make a judgement about the relative importance  of these different
factors.
 How do we account for the relative lack of women studying physics at university? 



2. To compare things or people

compare	verb  [transitive] to  examine  or consider two or more things or people,  in
order to show how they are similar or different:
 A study by Nottingham University	compared  the  cost of  recycling plastic bags with
making them from scratch. 
 Galileo compared the time it took for different types of object to fall to the ground.
 The graph compares the number of students joining the university to study history and 
chemistry.

make / draw a comparison to compare two or more things or people and say how
they are similar:


 In her article, she makes a comparison between people's lives now and 50 years ago.
 It is possible to draw a comparison between the two poets' work.

STUDY NOTE: Grammar 
Draw a comparison is more formal than make a comparison.

draw an analogy to say that two situations are similar:

 Some people have attempted to draw an analogy between America's invasion of Iraq
and the war in Vietnam.

draw a parallel to say that some aspects of two very different things are similar:

 The writer draws a parallel between Henry James's elaborate style of writing and the
ingenious patterns and curious details in Minton's paintings.
 Parallels can be drawn between her work and that of Picasso.

liken somebody / something to phrasal verb to say that someone or something
is similar to another person or thing:
 Gambling is often likened to drug addiction.
 Critics have likened the play to Arthur Miller's work.

contrast verb [transitive] to compare two things, situations etc, in order to show how 
they are different from each other:
 In her novel she contrasts the lives of two families in very different circumstances. 

make / draw  a distinction between  to  say that you think two things are very 
different:
 It is important  to make a distinction between people's fears about crime and  the real 
situation.
 The author draws a distinction between allowing death to occur, and causing it.

STUDY NOTE: Grammar 
Draw a distinction is more formal than make a distinction.
