sungoal wrote:Hi,
Can anybody tell me the exact difference in the usage of "whereas" and "unlike" ?
Is the below usage of unlike correct?
Unlike tubes in mammals, in birds tubes
I think in the above mentioned sentence, tubes is being compared with "in birds". Please correct me If I am wrong here.
isn't it should be Unlike tubes in mammals, tubes in birds ?
"unlike" and "whereas" aren't directly comparable to each other; they both indicate some sort of contrast, but they are grammatically different.
specifically, "unlike" is a preposition; like other prepositions, it must be followed by a
noun (which may have modifiers attached to it). on the other hand, "whereas" is a subordinating conjunction: it must be placed before a whole
clause, which, in turn, must be connected to another whole
clause. (i.e., the words that follow "whereas" must be a complete sentence by themselves, and those words must be attached to another complete sentence.)
for instance:
Unlike most other airlines, Spirit flies directly from Fort Lauderdale to MedellÃn.
--> correct (note that "unlike" is followed by "most other airlines" -- this is basically just the noun "airlines", with two adjectives in front of it)
Whereas other airlines' routes to MedellÃn consist of two or three connecting flights, Spirit has nonstop flights there every day.
--> correct (note that "whereas" is placed in front of a clause, and connected to another clause)
--
WORD PLACEMENT:
ideally, the "unlike" phrase should be attached to the noun that is actually "unlike xxxxx".
for instance:
Unlike Cali, MedellÃn enjoys relatively cool weather year-round because of the surrounding mountains. --> correct
MedellÃn, unlike Cali, enjoys relatively cool weather year-round because of the surrounding mountains. --> correct
both of these sentences are correct; in each of them, "unlike Cali" is attached to
MedellÃn, as required (since the contrast is being drawn between these two cities).
as far as the gmat is concerned, there is no difference between the two sentences written above. (there are rhetorical differences -- the second is a sentence that you would use if you had already been writing about cali and were introducing medellÃn for the first time in that section/paragraph -- but rhetorical differences are not tested on the gmat. there are absolutely no differences of grammar or meaning between those two sentences.)
--
in the (fraction of a) sentence you've posted about birds, the usage of "unlike tubes" is incorrect because the words "in birds" are interfering between that phrase and the correct noun ("tubes").
