The differences are not grammatical and it looks like a difference in meaning! IS that the whole sentence? What was the meaning of the original sentence I would refer back to that and stick close to that meaning!

Enginpasa1 wrote:The differences are not grammatical and it looks like a difference in meaning! IS that the whole sentence? What was the meaning of the original sentence I would refer back to that and stick close to that meaning!

No that is not the correct explanation ! Both sentences are complete. What makes you think they are not complete ? Please answer only if you are 100% sure.

A. Like many entertainers, members of an advocacy association of musicians said that they no longer wanted to be tax evaders but instead wanted to begin paying into Social Security and building good credit histories.

B. Like many other entertainers, members of an advocacy association of musicians said that they no longer wanted to be tax evaders but instead wanted to begin paying into Social Security and building good credit histories.

i think B is correct - in A, you say, "like many entertainers" it can mean the entertainers in that association, and entertainers outside the association.

answer B - when you say "Like many OTHER entertainers, ....." it actually refers to other entertainers outside that association

Correct me if i'm wrong. thanks

lalabee wrote:A. Like many entertainers, members of an advocacy association of musicians said that they no longer wanted to be tax evaders but instead wanted to begin paying into Social Security and building good credit histories.

B. Like many other entertainers, members of an advocacy association of musicians said that they no longer wanted to be tax evaders but instead wanted to begin paying into Social Security and building good credit histories.

i think B is correct - in A, you say, "like many entertainers" it can mean the entertainers in that association, and entertainers outside the association.

answer B - when you say "Like many OTHER entertainers, ....." it actually refers to other entertainers outside that association

Correct me if i'm wrong. thanks

This is the official explanation
The original contains a grammatical error; “like many entertainers” should be “like many other entertainers.” Musicians are a type of entertainer, and “other” must be used to indicate common membership in a larger group.


So its the same idea as you mentioned, but the other way around

Lets take another example...

Like Japan, US has ......
In the above sentence, US is not a part of japan , no membership. we are just showing similarity.. that makes sense right ? But i would like to hear if you have any more thoughts on this ?

We use "other" in a comparison if we're comparing specific members of a group to the rest of the group.

For example:

"Like other professional hockey players, Wayne Gretzky learned to skate at a young age."

Wayne Gretzky IS a hockey player, so we need to use "other" in the comparison.

"Like professional football players, Wayne Gretzky often took a pounding during games."

Wayne Gretzky is NOT a professional football player, so we omit "other" from the comparison.

Since the members of the advocacy group ARE entertainers, we need to use "other" for the comparison to be clear.

thanks, stuart