compare
part of speech
verb (compare, compares, compared, comparing)
meaning for a pupil
1) To compare is to look at two or more things to see how they are the same and how they are different. tree →
2) To compare is also to say one thing is like another. tree →
3) «Compared with» or «compared to» means when you set one beside the other. tree →
sense in the lessons
maths: asks to look at two amounts, usually to find how many more or fewer one has than the other, or which is bigger (>, <, =); science: compare results, compare two plants; English: compare two stories or characters; everyday life: compare prices to save money
examples
- Compare the number of apples and pears. tree →
- Compare 45 and 54: which is bigger? tree →
- Compared to Tom, Sara has 7 more stickers. tree →
- Compare the lengths of the two ropes. tree →
- Compare the two plants: which grew taller? tree →
- Compare prices before you buy. tree →
- The poem compares the moon to a balloon. tree →
- Compared with last year, it is warmer. tree →
- Nothing in the world can be compared with red shoes. tree →
note
Usually points to subtraction (the difference) or to choosing the bigger or smaller amount. Trap: «compared to Tom, Sara has 7 more» means Sara = Tom + 7, not Tom + 7 for Tom. To compare numbers, look at the biggest place value first.
In the corpora
- Many online photos are filtered or edited; comparing your real face to an edited picture is unfair on yourself.
- A family ticket is only a good deal after checking: add up the single tickets for your family and compare.
- Proportion means how big each part is compared with the others.
- Mammoths were close relatives of today's elephants, closest of all to the Asian elephant, as scientists found by comparing DNA.
- Newspapers can favour one side; comparing two reports helps you spot it.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «compare» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.