[Erin]

Hi Erin,
Pleeaaaaassssseeeeeee pardon me if I sound foolish :o but I have to clear my doubts.....

No question is ever too simple!!

From what you have explained (& it is wonderful as usual), would I be very wrong to draw the following conclusion:
When one is comparing two nouns performing two SIMILAR actions than one uses ‘as’ & if the comparison is between two nouns performing the SAME action, the usage is ‘like’? I hope you won't laugh......
Thanks,
ash

First of all, I should say that just about any GMAT grammar rule will have some exception. For this reason, I prefer not to refer to "English grammar rules" but to "GMAT patterns." As I'm sure you're aware, it's very difficult to give a pattern that applies in every case.

I would say that generally speaking, your summary is good, but just to be sure, I want to restate:

Use like when you want to focus on two nouns;

Use as when you want to focus on two nouns doing two actions.

Another little trick is that "just as" can replace "in the same way that..."

Let's compare two very similar sentences that could cause confusion:

My Siamese cat moved across the floor just like a lion stalking its prey.

To me, this sentence stresses how two different cats are similar. I know this is confusing because we have a noun, "lion" and a participle "stalking," which would seem to indicate that we should use "as," but it's just not so.

In this sentence, do you think we're tying to say

My Siamese cat moved across the floor in the way that a lion stalks its prey.

I don't think so...

My Siamese cat moved across the floor just as a lion stalks its prey.

This one sounds bad to me, I think because we are not explaining how the cat is moving. Furthermore, at some point, we are going to run into some ambiguity--"as" does also mean "at the same time," and I also think that the sentence above does sound a bit like two things are happening at the same time.

Let's look at a better sentence:

My Siamese cat moved across the floor just as a lion stalking its prey moves.

This one sounds very good to me; it explains how a my cat moved.

Furthermore, it has the same meaning as:

My Siamese cat moved across the floor in the way that a lion stalking its prey moves.



This particular point is always, always asked by my students. I'm sure some of you have more questions; if so, please ask!! I'm sure they'll be helpful. And, if possible, please post sample sentences.