focusgmat wrote:
1) People like you inspire me
2) In the flood, the wall acted as a dam
3) He acted like a fool
However, when I go by the rules you pointed me towards, I find the follwing :
1) inspire is a verb.The sentence has a verb and a subject. Hence , it is a clause. So we need to use As instead of like ... isn't it ?
Can you tell me how 2) 3) both can be correct.
I have taken all these examples from MGMAT and other forums.
1) People like you inspire me.
LIKE in above sentence means "
similar to". It means that people who are just like yourself inspire me. Basically you are comparing different people.
People and
You are both nouns, so usage of LIKE is correct here. But if you actually want to give examples of people that inspire you, then I think the correct sentence would be -
People such as yourself and John inspire me.
2) In the flood, the wall acted as a dam
There is no comparison going on here. When
As is used with nouns or noun phrases, it is called
Preposition As.
Preposition As is never used for making comparison. The sentence here is trying to say that the wall assumed the role of a dam.
3) He acted like a fool
This sentence is very similar to the first sentence. So same reasons apply here.
focusgmat wrote:
Can you guyz elaborate on why the below sentence uses LIKE ?
I think slide is a verb here.
However, is it different when we use relative pronouns such as that ... Does it mean , any sentence starting with relative pronoun even if it has a verb needs to be ignored as they act as modifies just like participles ?
"Those babies are cute, like little pandas that slide down rainbows" -- CORRECT!
* "little pandas" is a noun.
* "that slide..." DOES NOT count, since it's part of a modifier.
Those babies are cute, like little pandas that slide down rainbows
Here we are comparing
Babies to
Little Pandas. Both are nouns, so usage of LIKE is justified. Just as you said, modifiers attached to nouns should be ignored. In the above sentence,
"that slide down rainbows" is a modifier. So you correctly ignored that part. Clauses(Eg: Adjective clause, Adverb clause) can act as modifier. In such cases you would see a verb in the modifier. But since it is part of a modifier, we can ignore it.
Hope that helps..
