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As the title suggests, I'm confused over the meaning of "as does/as do."

In the link, http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/as-does-meaning.2885994/ the person's example is: "Opinions of food vary tremendously as does an individual's culinary skills." In this case, "as does" equates to "like" or "also." It means that BOTH the opinions and culinary skills vary.

However, in another link How to interpret "as do" in this sentence, "as does" shows a contrast meaning. The example in the link was: "Mutexes can be applied only to threads in a single process and do not work between processes as do semaphores." It means that UNLIKE semaphores, mutexes do not work between processes.

To me, it seems like "as does/as do" has opposite meanings in these two examples. Does the meaning of the phrase "as does" depend on the context or is there something I'm misunderstanding?

Relating to this, I made my own example sentence to practice: "He showed none of a father's assiduity in devoting to his family as do his dedication to his work." I am trying to convey that the father does NOT devote himself to his family BUT DOES dedicate himself to his work. Did I use the phrase "as does" (or "as do") correctly? (I realize anyhow that the sentence is very hard to read so I fixed it later with "He showed none of a father's assiduity in devoting to his family UNLIKE his dedication to his work." But I still would like some help with the former question please!

Thank you for your time! Please answer when you have the time!

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  • Semaphores are said to "work between processes"; the sentence doesn't compare semaphores with mutexes, at least not directly. We can rewrite this more verbosely to get something like: "Mutexes can be applied only to threads in a single process and do not work between processes. Semaphores do work between processes."
    – Lawrence
    Aug 7, 2016 at 13:00

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Note that "as does" applies when one thing/person is being compared with another.

eg. John sings in the choir on Sunday as does Mary.

"As do" is used for plural comparisons.

eg. Our sons sing in the choir on Sunday as do their daughters.

Thus the quoted sentence below should use "as do" (not "as does") because the "opinions of food" (plural) are being compared with "culinary skills" (plural):

"Opinions of food vary tremendously as does an individual's culinary skills."

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I believe they can have two meanings, but that doesn't change between "as do" and "as does". Those change based on plurals and sounds.

Examples for comparing two LIKE objects:

as do: "The students hate the new school science lab as do the teachers".

as does: "Opinions of food vary tremendously as does an individual's culinary skills."

Examples for comparing two UNLIKE objects:

as do: "Mutexes can be applied only to threads in a single process and do not work between processes as do semaphores."

as does: "The student did not like the lab which was supposed to be loved as does the principal." (this actually isn't very correct, I apologise)

It's almost similar to the difference between a/an.

For your sentence, try changing

"He showed none of a father's assiduity in devoting to his family as do his dedication to his work."

to:

"He didn't show as much assiduity in devoting to his family as he did to his work."

A slight variation on the "as do/does" phrase.

Hope I helped.

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I think they can be viewed as “Opinions vary as skill does”and “Mutexes do not work as semaphores do” So it’s an anastrophe.

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