- Forum >
- Topic: Greek >
- "Ένα μήλο δεν είναι σαν ένα π…
18 Comments
Really. Thank you Dimitra! Your explanations are always so thorough and patient. It makes such a difference. Same for all of the moderators. Ευχαρίστουμε πολύ!
Aww, παρακαλώ ^.^ I'm glad to see that I've helped learners even the slightest bit. It means a lot to me, as it means a lot to all the other mods.
And of course,thank you for taking the Greek course in the first place. ^.^
Όπως and σαν are interchangeable in many cases, with σαν being the most commonly used one.
The difference is that σαν means like, όπως also means however.
They are interchangeable in cases like
Είσαι κόκκινος σαν/όπως μία ντομάτα - You're red like a tomato.
But not in cases like
Do it however you like - Κάνε το/ Κάντο όπως θέλεις. (Where όπως is actually used like however)
So, in other words, όπως could replace σαν in some cases, but the cases that σαν replaces όπως are really few, if not none.^.^
Thank you very much! I love how the moderators here are always answering questions! Keep the good work :D
185
I think I read that σαν is more used to compare activities/verbs and όπως is more used to compare objects/nouns.
Is this correct?
I don't think there's a rule of thumb for that, as Dimitra has mentioned above, they're usually interchangeable, the biggest difference between them being that "σαν" requires the accusative case, while "όπως" is followed by the nominative.
Is this also an idiom in Greek, as the English "comparing apples with oranges"?
No, there isn't any such idiom in Greek. (and I didn't know that there was such an idiom in English) :)
It is usually used in response to someone trying to rank or compare two things that have many differences. Comparing classical to rock music would be comparing apples to oranges, because one might not be "better" than they other--they are just different.
Very interesting. I guess you know the English ... "that's comparing apples and oranges". I wonder what other languages have similar sayings.
Jaye16, there are several similar in meaning expressions in Russian only some of them not for print. :) there is one polite - to compare a god's gift with an omelette.
Thank you that's a very interesting way to express this. And thanks for NOT sharing those others. ;)
Happy learning.
Dutch has the same idiom as German! "That's like comparing apples with pears".
- 374
I wrote "An apple isn't as an orange" and it was rejected. I write it here because I frankly don't know if it should have been accepted haha but just in case it should :p
We can't us "as" here because it is a conjunction. In other words, it joins to similar parts of speech. Have a look at this link:
