Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[syoshioka99]

With the exception of land prices, the costs of goods and services in Japan are not essentially different, relative to income, from the same costs in other developed nations. A good dinner and a night in a hotel, a new stereo-sound system, or tuition in a private school will cost a Japanese family the same proportion of gross income as it would an American family.

(question) Which of the following is correct in order to rephrase "not essentially different...from"?

1. not always different...from
2. not substantially different...from
3. differ little...from
4. are about the same as
5. all of the above
6. none of the above (suggestions please)

Satoru
Tochigi, JPN

[Nef]

[syoshioka99]

>>>1. not always different...from (NO. May be different sometimes. This is not as strong a statement as "not essentially different from".)

(further question) Doesn't "not always different" mean "sometimes different and sometimes identical"?


Satoru

[Nef]

[quote="syoshioka99"]>>>1. not always different...from (NO. May be different sometimes. This is not as strong a statement as "not essentially different from".)

Satoru
[/quote]

(further question) Doesn't "not always different" mean "sometimes different and sometimes identical"? Yes, but it doesn't say HOW MUCH/often identical versus HOW MUCH/often different. I think it is
too vague to understand the supposed proportions of similarities and differences.

"Not essentially different from" means very similar in basic and important ways