Essential Grammar Point: “Like” And “As”

“Like” And “As” are sometimes found in a narrative text.
A. “Like” means similar to / the same as / for example:
• What a beautiful place! It’s like a dream land. (not ‘ as a dream land” )
• ‘What does Geoff do?’ ‘He’s a farmer, like me.’ (not ‘as me”)
• Be careful! The floor has been polished. It’s like walking on ice.
• It’s raining again. I like weather like this.

Like is a preposition, so it is followed by a noun (‘like a dream land), a pronoun (‘like me / like this’) or – ing (‘like walking’). You can also say ‘like (someone / something) –ing’ :
• ‘What’s that noise? ‘it sounds like a baby crying .’

B. “As” is a conjunction that appears (not ‘like’)before a subject + verb:
• Don’t do anything to the things there. Leave everything as it is .
Compare like and as in these sentence:
• You should have done it like this. (like + pronoun)
• You should have done it as I showed you. (as + subject + verb).
But we use such as (= for example) with a verb:
• Some sports, such as motor-racing, can be dangerous.
Note that we say as usual:
• You’re late just as usual

C. “As + subject + verb” can have other meanings. For example:
• Do as you are told! (= Do what you are told.)
• They did as they promised. (= They did what they promised).
You can also say as you know / as we expected / as I said etc:
• As you know, it’s Tom’s birthday next week. (= you know this already)
• Ann failed doing her trick on Jim, a we expected.

D. “As” can also be a preposition (which means you can use it with a noun), but the meaning is different from like.
We use like when we compare things :
• She looks beautiful like a princess. (She isn’t really a princess)
• Everyone is ill at home. Our house is like a hospital. (It isn’t really a hospital)
We use as + noun to say what something really is or was (especially when we talk about someone’s job or how we use something):
• A few years ago I worked as a taxi driver. (I really was a taxi driver)
• Susi has just found a job as a shop assistant.
• During the war this hotel was used as a hospital. (so it really was a hospital)


NOTE: However, there are some other various uses of “like” and “as”.