"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

Like, AS IF!

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

Seriously, tho, I've always used "like" in that context.

[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.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Re: Like, AS IF!

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Seriously, tho, I've always used "like" in that context.

Which context is that?

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

I do get what you are saying.

The dialect i grew up with always requires the subjunctive - whether past or present - after 'as if', but 'like' only requires the subjunctive if there be doubt, conjecture, contrariness to fact, or sometimes supposition. Under those same rules, if 'as if' can be followed by an indicative, one ought use 'like' instead.

Some time in the late 70s or early 80s, i started hearing 'was' instead of 'were', usually, but not always, from Northerners and younger people. Oddly, the present subjunctive seems to be holding strong, at least in the construction "May you be x.". I wonder why that, yet the past subjunctive seems to be in its death throws.

For a tad of background, my partner, who grew up at the other end of the county i did, was insisting that 'like' and 'as if' are the same. I, on the other hand, agree wholeheartedly with dmlaenker's "Like, as if" comment above.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

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

[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?

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

"Like" and "as if" are not, and never have been, interchangeable.

Yes, we agree on that count.

Like vs as - Those are basically interchangeable to me, in the presented context, though 'as' carries a bit more emphasis. The 'as' usage seems more British than North American to me, but not significantly so.

[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]

[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.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Re: Like, AS IF!

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

The context you provided above.

"Treated me like I was an adult" is an acceptable usage to me. I was mostly raised in southeastern Virginia, and I don't know where else my dialect has come from with the exception of military schools, private schools and the media.

[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.

[sharrainchains.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. I would have said, "he looked happy."

[palmwiz.livejournal.com]

The dialect i grew up with always requires the subjunctive - whether past or present - after 'as if'

Likewise. I too will use 'like' for verbs as well nouns, but I won't use 'as' for nouns, only verbs, so they're not quite interchangeable.