"like" vs "as if"

[dcseain]

He looked like he was happy.
He looked as if he were happy.


Are 'like' and 'as if', as used above, synonyms?

Discuss, and please provide your native, or first-learned, dialect of English.

Comments

[maddogairpirate.livejournal.com]

To me, 'as if' there implies that he seemed happy, but with a 'BUT it wasn't the case' implied with it. That's mostly because of the context I've heard, I'd presume.

Just using like doesn't have that condition attached.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is a subtly of connotation there, which i see you grok.

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my ear hears that faint distinction too.

Origin: Mid-Atlantic "native" (grew up 10 mi south of Mason-Dixon line, 2 hours from Philly, 1 hour from Baltimore). I automatically use "like/was" and "as if/were".

[Side note: I'm currently learning some Portuguese from CDs in the car, and was interested to learn that they have two different forms of "to be" -- "ser" for permanent states, and "estar" for temporary ones. So it's less close to French than I had thought initially. And two years of Japanese yielded three verbs (well, technically one copula and two regular ones) handling conditions of existence: "desu", with that being a kind of equality symbol and all-around mama's helper verb, and then "arimasu"/"imasu" depending on whether the subject is inanimate or animate. Fascinating to see how different languages interpret something so simple as "be".]

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Spanish and Catalan also have ser/estar and esser/estar for 'be', respectively. In Spanish and Catalan, ser/esser is used for things that are permanent/fixed/characteristic and time, but not location. Estar/Estar is used for location/temporary state, exlcuding time. Estar/Estar is also used for forming progressive tenses in Spanish, Catalan, and Aragonese.

Examples, using Spanish square brackets are connotation:

¡Que bonita estás! - How beautiful you are [today/tonight/now]
¡Que bonita eres! - How beautiful you are [as a characteristic of her existence/daily/by merit of existing]

Estoy hablando ahorita. - I'm talking right now.
Está buscándolo. - S/he's looking for it. [right now - at the moment]

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

That is my interpretation as well. "Looked like" suggests that to your best estimation he was. "Looked as if" suggests that despite appearances you have reasons to doubt, or at least reasons not to say one way or the other.