Compare with or Compare to

 

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Compare with and compare to are often used interchangeably and that use is not really wrong. If you’re comparing two things that are obviously similar, either to or with works fine. However, a distinction can be made. Compare to is often used to stress similarities, especially between things that are, at first glance, dissimilar. For example, the computer is often compared to a human brain because of the way both process information. In this use, compare is synonymous with liken. On the other hand, if you want to contrast two things, compare with is more useful. For example, when I compare my computer with my brain, I find my brain often slower to boot up (especially when it’s low on caffeine). 

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Both prepositions, to and with, can be used following compare. Neither is more correct than the other, but a slight distinction can be made in meaning. To has traditionally been preferred when the similarity between two things is the point of the comparison and compare means ‘liken’:  I hesitate to compare my own works to those of someone like Dickens.

With, on the other hand, suggests that the differences between two things are

as important as, if not more important than, the similarities: We compared the  facilities available to most city-dwellers with those available to people living in the country ; to compare like with like . When compare is used intransitively it should be followed by with: Our output simply cannot compare with theirs.

Bottomline: If the differences are important, say compared with.

 

***** Compare usually takes the preposition “to “to”” when it refers to the activity of

describing the resemblances between unlike things: He compared her to a summer day. Scientists sometimes compare the human brain to a computer.

It takes “with “with”” when it refers to the act of examining two like things in order to discern their similarities or differences: The police compared the forged signature with the original. The committee will have to compare the Senate’s

version of the bill with the version that was passed by the House.

When compare is used to mean “to liken (one) with another,” with is

traditionally held to be the correct preposition: That little bauble is not to be compared with (not to) this enormous jewel. But “to” is fre quently used in this

context and is not incorrect.

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These are sometimes interchangeable, but when you are stressing similarities between the items compared, the most common word is “to”: “She compared his home-made wine to toxic waste.” If you are examining both similarities and “with”: ”: “The teacher compared Steve’s exam with Robert’s to differences, use “with

see whether they had cheated.”  When we wish to show two like things as similar, we use "compare to." When we wish to shoe them as dissimilar, we use "compare with." Quiz about compare to or with: http://homep http://homepage.smc.edu/quizzes/chen age.smc.edu/quizzes/cheney_joyce/Comparewith ey_joyce/Comparewithcompare.html compare.html