difference
part of speech
noun (difference, differences)
meaning for a pupil
1) In maths, the difference is how much bigger one number is than another; you find it by subtracting. tree →
2) A difference is a way in which two things are not the same: spot the differences. tree →
3) To make a difference is to change something, often for the better. tree →
sense in the lessons
the answer to «how many more/fewer … than» (subtract the smaller from the bigger); in class «find the difference between», «spot the difference»; in science differences between animals or materials; in everyday life «it makes no difference», «make a difference»
examples
- Here the word «more» does not mean adding: it asks how big the difference is. tree →
- What is the difference between 15 and 9? tree →
- Find the difference between Tom's 12 stickers and Ann's 7. tree →
- The difference between 20 and 13 is 7. tree →
- Can you spot five differences between the pictures? tree →
- One difference between frogs and toads is their skin. tree →
- Recycling makes a big difference to our planet. tree →
- Twins can look the same, but there are small differences. tree →
note
Difference means subtract the smaller from the bigger. Trap: the word «more» in «how many more … than» asks for a difference, not a sum. Adjective «different». Check: smaller number + difference = bigger number.
In the corpora
- "Musical differences" and "taking a break" mean only what was said; nobody outside the band knows the rest.
- Darwin visited the Galápagos on the Beagle in 1835, and the differences between islands helped him explain evolution in his book of 1859.
- Most things around us are solids, liquids or gases, and the difference is how their particles behave.
- "Irreconcilable differences" is the official reason given for a divorce (US).
- Differences in height, glasses and hearing aids are normal and never a reason to tease.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «difference» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.