Improve Your Writing - 6 ways to compare

One of the most common types of essays you will have to write at university as well as on the IELTS or TOEFL is a comparison essay. In this lesson, I will teach you some useful words that will help you to compare things. By the end of this video, you will be able to use terms such as "alike", "similar", "in the same way", "likewise", and more. Take my quiz at the end for more experience using these words. http://www.engvid.com/writing-6-ways-to-compare/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today’s video, I am going to teach you some key words you can use when you talk about how things are the same or similar. Okay? 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 video, I’m going to teach you a bunch of expressions you can use when comparing two things to show their similarities. Okay? So this video is called "Talking about similarities".

So for this video, 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? Okay? So each of my sentences are 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 watching, if you are doing the TOEFL, these words are essential. If you are doing the IELTS – very important vocabulary here. 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 when we’re talking about similarities is this word, "both". Both Canada and England have a queen. Both Canada and England have trees. Both Canada and England have cities. Okay? 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." Okay? 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." Okay? I could say that. If I’m comparing men and women, "Like women, men are human." Okay? It’s not the greatest of comparisons, but you can use these types of words when you’re comparing. Okay?

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. Okay? 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." Okay? 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.