You're learning with nine to five English - business English for the
workplace.
Hi Tim here with another nine-to-five English lesson. In today's lesson we're
going to learn how to talk about differences life and business is full of
choices and anytime you make a choice you have to compare the options you
might think about how they are similar as we did in our last lesson and you
might look at how they are different often we compare things using an
adjective like cheap or beautiful comparing with short adjectives like
cheap is easy we just say cheaper in the same way we say bigger hotter and nicer
but long adjectives are a bit different we have to say more beautiful how about
giving this a try let's practice comparing with adjectives
and some other expressions listen to each example then repeat it yourself
ready let's give it a go Fiona is definitely more experienced than Henry
the new office is larger than our old one
laser and inkjet printers differ in terms of price
unlike Thomas Charles has a background in engineering
great so we heard some comparisons with adjectives and we also heard that two
things can differ in some way that's the same as saying they are different things
might differ in terms of price or in terms of size or in terms of any other
quality and one more way to show difference is with the word unlike for
example unlike Tom I live in Chicago that just means that Tom doesn't live in
Chicago but sometimes we want to say that two things are very different not
just a little different but a lot well if you're comparing with adjectives you
can add the word way or far before the adjective for example Tom is way smarter
than me another way to say the same thing is I'm not nearly as smart as Tom
in other words I'm not even close to being equal to him in terms of being
smart let's try a little practice with describing big differences once again
repeat the examples after you hear them the x500 is not nearly as powerful as
the X mm
steel is way heavier than wood
my brother Gus is nothing like me
Google and IBM are completely different as organizations
so we heard way heavier and not nearly as powerful as but did you hear any
other expressions for showing a big difference one way is to say something
is nothing like something else that means they are not similar in any way
it's the same as saying two things are completely different which we also heard
but what if we want to show exactly what it is that is different for example I
might want to say Tom lives in Chicago and I live in New York well this is
really easy to do you just need a little word to connect these ideas a little
word that says these ideas are different if you want to keep it simple you can
use the word but between your ideas you could also use where as or while let's
try using some of these connecting words for making comparisons here we go
Saturdays are always busy whereas Mondays are usually quiet
you
the canon camera is automatic while the codec is manual
the Mercedes looks good but it's too expensive
in contrast to John's reports Ronaldo's are very confusing
so that last example we heard was a little different wasn't it the
connecting words weren't in the middle but at the start that's possible with
the expression in contrast to so I might say in contrast to Tom I live in New
York now that we've practiced some examples let's hear how this sounds in a
conversation we're going to listen to a short dialogue between Anna and Sam Anna
is asking Sam about two people who have applied for a job John and Byron and Sam
is talking about how John and Byron are different let's listen so what did you
think of the two job applicants well John is not nearly as confident as Byron
yeah but what about their experience Byron has lots but John is new to the
business now it's your turn to practice will repeat the dialogue but this time
we're going to be bout the second speakers words you will have to say
those parts yourself remember to start by saying John is not nearly as
confident as Byron then you'll compare their experience with the word but here
we go so what did you think of the two job applicants
yeah but what about their experience
you
all right that about does it for this lesson
we've learned some great ways to talk about differences in our next lesson
we'll look at using superlatives such as best and most to make comparisons until
then so long and happy learning