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'As' introduces a role or comparison with a full clause; 'like' introduces similarity and is followed by a noun.
Side-by-side comparison
"As" talks about someone's real role or how they do something. "She works as a doctor" = she IS a doctor. It also introduces comparisons with a full clause.
She works as a nurse at the hospital on the north side of the city.
As I said earlier, the meeting starts at ten, please try to be on time.
He used the empty room as a study during the exam period at university.
"Like" talks about resemblance, not real function. "She looks like a doctor" = she looks like one, but may not be. It is followed by a noun or pronoun.
She sings like a professional, have you ever heard her perform live on stage?
The new café looks like a place from a film, all wooden furniture and low lighting.
He runs like the wind, no one on the team can keep up with him at all.
Common mistake
"She works like a teacher" (she resembles a teacher in her approach, but is not one) vs "She works as a teacher" (her actual job is teaching). "As" = real role or function. "Like" = similarity or resemblance.
Trick to remember it
- •Substitution test: can you replace it with "in the role of"? Use "as".
- •Can you replace it with "similar to" or "resembling"? Use "like".
Quick rule
- •"As" = real function or role (she works as a nurse = she is a nurse).
- •"Like" = similarity (she looks like a nurse = she resembles a nurse).
Did you know?
In 1954, the Winston cigarette company launched the slogan "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should", using "like" where prescriptive grammarians demanded "as". The ad was a sales success but also a grammatical scandal: English purists sent protest letters. Paradoxically, the controversy made it one of the most memorable ads in American advertising history, now studied in linguistics courses as an example of how grammar rules generate cultural controversy.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
She works _____ a nurse at the local hospital.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
His new phone looks exactly _____ mine. They must be the same model.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
The comparative compares two things; the superlative designates the extreme in a group of three or more.
'Because' introduces the cause or reason; 'so' introduces the effect or consequence.
'A' is used before consonant sounds; 'an' is used before vowel sounds.
'A lot of' works for countable and uncountable; 'many' only for countable; 'much' only for uncountable.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy