In this sentence, which would be the better word to use, 'like' or 'as'?
"Chugging alcohol is like/as talking to God."
What would the difference be?
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2 Answers
Like
You can use like or as in comparisons, but they go with different grammatical follow-ups.
Like goes with nouns:
Chugging alcohol is like talking to G-d.
Similar works the same way but ironically emphasizes the distinction instead of the similarity.
Chugging alcohol is similar to talking to G-d [implied "but isn't the same thing"].
As goes with prepositional phrases and clauses:
Chugging alcohol makes people feel as if they were talking to G-d.
Chugging alcohol makes people feel as though they were talking to G-d.
There's also as ~ as, though, which takes nouns:
Chugging alcohol is as good as talking to G-d.
although that also emphasizes that they are noticeably distinct things. It's just that they are considered equally good by the speaker.
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There's also (as pointed out here) a role for as when followed by nouns, but it's a different one meaning in the role of. 'Chugging alcohol is great as G-d' properly means, if you should happen to be G-d, chugging alcohol will be great for you. There's also such as, but that's used for listing examples.– llyCommented Apr 8, 2017 at 3:57
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Like can also take phrases as well, though it's usually taken as less formal: Chugging alcohol [is/feels/makes me feel] like I'm talking to G-d. Really, those two words are both so basic that any prescriptivist rules start to get very messy and riddled with exceptions. The underlying problem is that as + a noun usually means something else and so sounds 'off' here.– llyCommented Apr 8, 2017 at 4:00
It is a comparison; one is looking for similarity.
Ergo, "like" applies, while "as" would be incorrect.
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