Making comparisons is important in analytic writing, and it would behoove writers to understand the grammar involved in comparing one item with another.
According to Claire Cook, the verb compare is used differently with different prepositions (172). Use compare with when you want to evaluate the similarities and differences between items (e.g., species of finch).
My essay compares the house finch with the goldfinch.
Use compare to when you wish to make an analogy—that is, when you wish to highlight a point of similarity between otherwise very different items.
The poet compares her handwritten signature to ocean swell in a storm.
Work Cited
Cook, Claire Kehrwald. Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1985.
2 Comments
P.J. Liebson 08 June 2024 AT 12:06 PM
If two items have nothing in common, is it correct to use "contrast" instead of "compare"?
William Waters 22 July 2026 AT 12:07 AM
I know this query is two years old, but the misuse of "contrast" hasn't improved, so here are two points offered to anyone who happens by. First, if you think about it, there is no contrasting without comparing -- because, as the quotation above indicates, "comparing" encompasses both similarities and differences. Also, if two things really have absolutely nothing in common, no one will ever think of setting them side by side, including you. Second, "to contrast" requires a preposition, not a direct object. It's not (yet) standard written English to say "x contrasts y," though students have been mistakenly writing that for some time. Has to be "x contrasts with y" or (in the noun form) "x stands in contrast to y," perhaps!
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