ALIKE vs. LIKE: Differences in Grammar and Meaning

Hi everyone. It's Jennifer here with another English lesson.

I may not sound like myself today because I'm getting over a sore throat.

I'm better now, but two days ago my throat felt like sandpaper.

It was so scratchy.

I thought, "Well, I won't be able to make a long video this week,

but it's an opportunity to talk about two easily confused words:

alike and like."

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Perhaps some of you already feel confident about the words ALIKE and LIKE,

but let's take a little time to be sure you fully understand the difference. These words may sound alike,

but their uses are a bit different.

ALIKE can be an adjective or an adverb. ALIKE can help us express a similarity.

As an adjective we use ALIKE after a linking verb.

People say my oldest brother, and I look alike. We have similar faces.

Some siblings even sound alike. Their voices can be easily confused over the phone.

So you can use these combinations:

With the verb BE we often use these phrases:

As an adverb, we use ALIKE after an action verb.

ALIKE then means in a similar way or pretty much in the same way.

My friend Vicki, and I often think alike. In fact, she has a similar video on this topic.

Do you collaborate well with certain people?

I bet you do. You work well together because you think along the same lines, and your ideas fit together nicely.

Have you heard this expression? Great minds think alike.

You can say this when two people have similar ideas and those ideas are good.

Okay. There's one more use of ALIKE to mention.

As an adverb, we can use ALIKE to emphasize two people,

two things, or two groups.

Basically, I'm saying that I have resources for both students and teachers.

Note the word order.

I use ALIKE after the two groups that I mention. In this case,

students and teachers are the object of a preposition. I have a compound object.

I name the two groups and use ALIKE to emphasize that I'm referring to both of them.

ALIKE can also appear after a compound subject, so you'll see it in the middle of a sentence. For example:

Okay, so we've seen three uses of ALIKE: after a linking verb, after an action verb, and after two nouns

for emphasis.

Now let's look at the word LIKE and see where the confusion can happen.

I said earlier that my throat felt like sandpaper.

What kind of word followed LIKE?

Like sandpaper...

a noun. "Sandpaper" is a noun.

My throat felt...

like sandpaper.

My verb is FELT.

In this sentence, LIKE is a preposition.

"Sandpaper" is the object of the preposition.

We can use the word LIKE as a preposition. We use LIKE + a noun or a noun phrase to make comparisons.

We could also use LIKE plus a pronoun. For example, I don't sound like myself today.

"Myself" is a reflexive pronoun.

If you have a sore throat and you begin to talk, I might comment, "Your voice sounds like mine."

"Mine" is a possessive pronoun.

I'm comparing your voice to my voice. It's low and scratchy.

We can make comparisons with any of the senses:

...and then plus a noun object.

If our friend looks pale today, I might comment to you and say, "She doesn't look well.

She looks like a ghost."

So we've talked about ALIKE being an adjective and an adverb and LIKE being a preposition.

Both words help us make comparisons or show similarities.

Here's one more use of the word LIKE that can cause some doubts.

Pay attention to the meaning and the structure of my example.

Informally we use LIKE to mean AS IF.

We use AS IF or LIKE to make comparisons to situations that are real or unreal, likely or unlikely.

Use AS IF when standard grammar is best. You can use LIKE informally.

Listen and decide if I'm referring to a real or unreal situation.

In this use, what follows LIKE is a whole clause with a subject and a verb.

In my example sentences, LIKE functions as a conjunction allowing us to build a complex sentence.

To review, ALIKE and LIKE help us make comparisons.

And we can say what someone or something is similar to.

ALIKE is an adjective or an adverb.

Use ALIKE after a linking verb or an action verb.

You can also use ALIKE after a compound subject or a compound object for emphasis.

LIKE is a preposition. We follow it with a noun or pronoun.

Informally we can use LIKE as a

subordinating conjunction to mean AS IF.

Then we follow LIKE with a whole clause, with a subject and a verb.

For practice, in the comments you can try comparing yourself to another person.

For example, some people say I look like the actress, Winona Ryder.

Well, maybe we have similar features...

like the same hair color and the same eye color, but Winona Ryder is 5 foot 3 inches,

and I'm 5 foot 6 inches, so I'm definitely taller.

I've also heard people compare me to Uma Thurman, another actress.

In terms of shape, were very much alike. She's tall and skinny. I'm tall and skinny.

But actually, she's much taller than me and she's blonde.

Either way, I take these comparisons as a compliment. I have respect for Winona Ryder and Uma Thurman alike.

I'll provide corrections as time allows, but please help one another. Read and comment on other posts.

That's all for now. Please like this video if you found it useful. As always, thanks for watching and happy studies.

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