Friday, September 25, 2009

Such as vs. Such...as


Such as and suchas are the same in meaning and can be used in many cases instead of each other but there are differences between them:

Similarities

They are used to introduce examples:
- ..careers such as/such careers as teaching, nursing, hairdressing and catering.
- ...delays such as/ delays caused by such things as bad weather or industrial disputes.
- On a day such as today/on such a day as today, it's hard to imagine that things will ever be normal again.

 You use such...as to link something or someone with a clause in which you give a description of the kind of thing or person that you mean.

- Each member of the alliance agrees to take such actions as/ take actions such as it deems necessary, - Including the use of armed force...
- Britain is not enjoying such prosperity as/ the prosperity such as it was in the mid-1980s.
- Children do not use inflections such as/such inflections as are used in mature adult speech...

Differences

You use such...as to introduce a reference to the person or thing that has just been mentioned.

- There have been previous attempts at coups. We regard such methods as entirely
unacceptable...
- There'd be no telling how John would react to such news as this.

We use such...as in formal style for emphasizing that something is not enough for a particular purpose:

- Such experience as I have is useless in this situation.
- Such changes as they made were minor and did not go far enough.
- Such food as they gave us was scarcely fit to eat.
- Such advice as he was given (= it was not very much) has proved almost worthless.

Note that in this sense it is synonymous with  inadequate, insufficient, scant, meager, pitiful.

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