"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

[ftemery.livejournal.com]

It's very interesting how language change over the years, some parts getting simpler and shorter, and casual replaces precise. Something like "Me and her will go" compared to "She and I" is so common (and annoying) now, but English is the only language that has that distinction. And people don't roll their eyes when they say "Like" (unless it precedes "you know?") but they do roll their eyes when they say "as if". But, like, I digress, you know?

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Actually, the usage of the objective form of pronouns being used as subjects goes back at least as far as Chaucer in English. Do recall that the 1st grammars written for English were based more on Latin and French that much of our vocabulary comes from rather than on the German/Dutch/Swedish that led us to the language we speak, grammatically, today.